Bharti AXA General boosts health segment with wellness and Ayush benefits amid COVID

New Delhi, Feb 9 Following the robust growth in the health segment in the first half of the financial year 2020-21, leading private non-life insurer Bharti AXA

General Insurance strengthened its health insurance portfolio with wellness and Ayush benefits with the introduction of an innovative healthcare offering Health AdvantEDGE that provides holistic protection against mounting expenses related to medical exigencies and other healthcare services.

Bharti AXA Health AdvantEDGE is also one of the few healthcare products that offer comprehensive wellness benefits as a key differentiator in the domestic health insurance market. It is specially designed to support the healthcare and wellness needs of customers.

The new health insurance plan also offers Ayush benefits, wherein all the expenses incurred on treatment in a hospital under Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy Unani, Sidha and Homeopathy, and organ donor expenses.

This unique health plan offers a restore benefit that automatically reinstates the basic sum insured in case it is exhausted within the policy year. If the policyholder uses up the entire sum insured and falls ill even if it is for the same illness or condition during the same year, the company will restore 100 per cent basic sum insured. This ensures that the policyholder has requisite coverage at all times and reduces the need for multiple policies.

Speaking about the new health offering today, Bharti AXA General Insurance MD and CEO Sanjeev Srinivasan, said, "We are living in unprecedented times where our physical health and well-being have never been more crucial than it is now. Amid the ever-rising medical expenses, ensuring the protection of one's financial health should be of paramount importance. Towards this, we present Health AdvantEDGE, which addresses healthcare and wellness requirements of the customers and offers timely and necessary support during their time of need. We are confident that our health offering will adequately prepare individuals and families against uncertainties surrounding medical exigencies and rising healthcare expenses."

Further, this health insurance plan comes with wellness benefits and value-added services for the convenience of policyholders to address their wellness needs and also get rewarded for it. Under the wellness program, the policyholder gets credited with reward points for inculcating healthy habits. The reward points can be redeemed to avail of a discount on the policy premium or a concession on medical bills or consultation fees among others.

To further enrich customer engagement and experience, the Bharti AXA Wellness Cuppa portal has been launched for its esteemed customers. Through the wellness portal and app, the policyholders can avail the entire gamut of wellness features and services in one place. Apart from health rewards, some of the features also include video/teleconsultation, pharmacy, and diagnostic services, online chat with doctors, doctor's appointment, doctor on call, and medical second opinion.

"We understand the requirements of our customers in this fast-paced world. Bharti AXA Health AdvantEDGE addresses the array of consumers who are looking beyond health insurance products that offer claims only against hospitalisation expenses. With this product, we offer wellness benefits with options to customize the offering that will help them create the plan that suits them best in times of illness as well as on their journey of wellness. With customer-centricity being at the core of all our initiatives, we constantly strive to innovate to enrich our customer offerings and provide superior products and services," said Srinivasan.

Notably, the health and personal accident segment saw a significant 47 per cent growth at Rs 226 crore in the first half of the current financial year as compared to Rs 153 crore in the same period of 2019-20. "The expected outcome of the Covid-19 crisis is the behavioural change of people towards health insurance, as they realized the benefits of adequate protection and health coverage. This helped us serve the customers with our comprehensive health insurance plans and boost this segment," he has pointed out.

This new-age health plan provides a holistic cover right from pre-hospitalization to post-hospitalization, in-patient treatment, and daycare treatments. It comes with 60 days pre and 90 days post-hospitalization cover as well as a wide range of sum insured from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 crore with the cashless facility and seamless claim procedure. Another unique feature of this plan is a guaranteed cumulative bonus of 20 per cent to the policyholders in a claim-free policy year upon renewal. This feature ensures that the cumulative bonus does not reduce even if there is a claim.