Page 33 - Insurance Times December 2019
P. 33

We have designed many new programmes to take care of
         the changing needs of the industry. We trained about 6,500  We provide lot of soft skills and
         insurance executives last year and this number is increasing.  prepare the students to face the
         We are training insurance executives from other countries
         as well who consider NIA as a centre of excellence in     challenges of the insurance
         insurance learning. There is also a demand from Middle
         East to set up a branch of NIA to give high quality training  industry which is growing and
         to insurance executives.
                                                                       facing lot of changes.
         According to you what should be the areas which
         may be of high demand in coming future?
                                                              prepare the students to face the challenges of the
         The news areas where there is need for training include
                                                              insurance industry which is growing and facing lot of
         Digital transformation, Risk Management, data Analytics,
         fraud Analytics, Actuarial science, corporate governance.  changes. Our students are prepared to take over the roles
         We have been focusing a lot-on these areas.          of industry leaders who would run their companies
                                                              efficiently and professionally. The unique faculty
                                                              composition and environment in the campus ensures huge
         The Insurance Industry is becoming very
                                                              connect to the real corporate world and the students are
         competitive. The students must gear up to face
                                                              well prepared to face the challenges.
         new challenges to handle the work pressure as
         well as to excel in performance.  Do you integrate   Any other thing you would like to add?
         these aspects in your programmes to help the         The world of insurance is witnessing fascinating changes
         students to cope up with these challenges?           and we need huge insurance talent. There is need for many
         Our course is designed to provide management skills as well  quality institutions to meet the needs of the growing
         as insurance expertise. We provide lot of soft skills and  insurance sector. Key word is quality. T


                  The opportunity cost of state health insurance schemes

           Large-scale government-sponsored health insurance schemes (GSHIs) such as Ayushman Bharat are often heralded
           as the best way to address public health issues. But are they fiscally feasible and optimal for improving health care in
           India? A new National Institute of Public Finance and Policy paper by Mita Choudhury and others shows how basic
           healthcare can suffer following the introduction of GSHIs, especially in fiscally constrained situations.

           In their analysis, they examine health insurance schemes implemented by Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana),
           Karnataka and Tamil Nadu between 2004-2017. They find that the fiscal burden was the highest in Andhra Pradesh
           with over 25% of total health spending directed towards the insurance scheme, compared to 10-13% in Tamil Nadu
           and 5% in Karnataka. The higher fiscal burden in Andhra Pradesh is attributed to the scale of the scheme which covered
           1,000 procedures and about 85% of the population. In all three states, insurance schemes were gradually expanded
           from just covering the poor to other sections of the population.
           They show that spending on other important aspects of public health such as primary and secondary healthcare (which
           includes rural healthcare centres) fell. This, in turn, could result in more hospitalizations in the long run which can
           increase the cost of insurance schemes.
           The authors also find that a higher budget on insurance does not necessarily translate to effectiveness. In Andhra
           Pradesh, only 10% of hospitalizations were covered by the insurance scheme while in Tamil Nadu, the figure was
           slightly higher (16%). One factor that worked in favour of Tamil Nadu was its strong public health system. As a result,
           most insurance claims came from public hospitals and the state could negotiate lower prices for health procedures in
           private hospitals. (Source: Livemint)


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