Page 25 - Insurance Times December 2021

During February 2020, health insurers received 908,849 Conclusion
claims that were related to Covid. These claims summed up In this study, it was seen how rapidly the Blockchain as a
to Rs. 13,752.41 crores. They settled 761,676 claims which technology has got the attention of the insurers and the race
summed to Rs. 7,141.33 crores. This accounts for 15% of the in adopting this technology first in different levels of
total premiums that were accumulated till January. See Figure
applications by them.
3 below which shows claims surge due to Covid 19 in various
months of year 2020.
The challenges arise when insurers decide to embrace
Blockchain technology without reflecting upon the fact
Fig 3: Claims settled during Covid 19 whether or not they are mature enough for its adoption for
pandemic everyday processing. Present infrastructure in India amongst
companies is still uneven and adoption of Blockchain
technology demands having a peer-to-peer network. Every
party to the network has nodes connected to these networks
and these nodes are running on systems of different
capacities. To streamline the process each node must be
operating on a network where there is sync in processing
power from all the parties. If a network exceeds its maximum
capacity, then the average amount of transaction decreases
and affects the business.

There are temporary solutions available for the companies
where they can add buffer capacity either by increasing the
block size or reducing the block time thereby reducing hash
Source: Business Standard (2021) "Health insurance complexity. But Insurance companies cannot rely only on this
companies get over 900K Covid-19 claims, settle 84%" solution in the long run. The permanent solution to this is
that all the parties to the peer network must plan collectively
By July 2020, around 81000 cases were reported for claims. to evolve the infrastructure of the deprived parties by either
This count doubled and reached 160,000 in August. The slope investing in them or by providing leveled infrastructure.
became steep and the count crossed 475,000 by October
and by November, it reached beyond 576,000. By the end of For greater capacity, Blockchain takes a lot of power. This
the year, it was 664,488 numbers of claims per month which necessitates a higher level of investment in current
summed to Rs. 9,989.89 crores. infrastructure. The question we need to answer if Blockchain
is employed on a wide scale, will it be
On average, Covid related claims that were received
throughout the year were around Rs. 1.51 lakhs, while the References
average claims that were settled were Rs. 93,758.17 crores. Various Sources. T

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance partners with TropoGo for drone
insurance

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance on Thursday announced its partnership with deep-tech startup TropoGo for the
distribution of a drone Insurance product. “The drone insurance product will cover damage to the Drone and Payload
it carries, Third Party Liability along with additional covers for BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) Endorsement and
Night Flying Endorsement,” it said in a statement.
Drone owners and drone manufacturing companies can avail an annual third-party and comprehensive coverage
for accidental damage, theft, and disappearance, it said, adding that users can opt for additional endorsements for
night flying, BVLOS, payload and data loss liability. Companies can also avail customised insurance coverage for fleet
requirements.

The Insurance Times, December 2021 25