International health insurance trends 2016

If you are a business manager or are part of an HR team that is managing your company’s health insurance plan in Singapore you are probably already well aware of the fact that it can be a lot of work to ensure your plan is managed effectively. Add in the fact that premiums are always increasing while budgets are shrinking, and what appears to be simple job can quickly become a complex, grinding task.

One way to avoid this is to be aware of the current trends in the health insurance industry, especially when it comes to what other companies are doing. By knowing this, you will have a strong reference point that can help you start to implement improvements or even identify a health insurance plan that will meet your company’s needs.

The question is: Where can one identify the strongest health insurance trends affecting the industry this year? It was this question that prompted Pacific Prime’s most recent report. Titled Top International Private Medical Insurance Trends – 2016 and available for free now on our website, this report identifies health insurance trends that will have the biggest impact on the way HR teams manage their solutions.

About the International Private Medical Insurance trends report

This is Pacific Prime’s first annual in-depth look into trends in the industry and in order to identify them, we interviewed six health insurance veterans from five of the top international providers including:

• Robert Lang, Managing Director – Bupa Global

• Kevin Melton, Sales and Marketing Director –  AXA International Health Business

• Steve Conway, Regional General Manager, Asia –  Allianz Worldwide Care

• Mike Che, Associate Director, Business Development – Cigna Worldwide

• Kapil Dhir, Chief Compliance Officer – Aetna International

• Steve Clement, Lead Benefit Consultant, Human Resources – Aetna International

The insight and expertise provided by those involved led to the identification of four major trends that the insurers believe to be gaining the most interest from companies and HR teams who manage their health insurance offerings.

• Trend 1: Implementing cost containment measures – Health insurance premiums are guaranteed to be almost always increasing, and managing these costs can be challenging. Cutting health insurance completely is not a good idea, so companies would likely be better off looking for ways to contain costs. In this section, the insurers mentioned a number of containment strategies being implemented by their clients.

• Trend 2: Management of benefits – With the needs of your employees likely changing on a fairly regular basis, coverage benefits that worked well and were in demand in the past may no longer be as useful today. Therefore, managing benefits has become an effective way to ensure the success of your health insurance plan. In this section, the insurers identified a number of interesting management strategies they have seen companies implement in regards to existing benefits, and some increasingly popular requests for new benefits.

• Trend 3: Integrating technology – Technology plays an important part in nearly all business functions, and it is starting to be integrated by insurers in order to help businesses better manage their health insurance solutions. In this section of the report, we discuss what exactly these actions are, and how they are helping businesses.

• Trend 4: Working with regulation – Many countries are implementing stricter financial regulations which are subsequently resulting in increased regulation of the insurance sector. This trend is therefore, becoming increasingly more popular for businesses with offices in multiple locations. In this section, we cover what companies are doing and what they have been focusing on.

Where can I read about health insurance trends for 2016?

The Top International Private Medical Insurance Trends – 2016 report is available now, for free, on Pacific Prime’s main website. Or, you can download your copy for offline reading by following this link to the report download page.

If you have questions about your company’s health insurance plan or are looking for a more effective solution, contact the experts at Pacific Prime Singapore. We can work with you to identify your needs and a plan that will work for you.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Serena Fung

Senior Content Creator at Pacific Prime Singapore

Serena Fung is a Senior Content Creator at Pacific Prime, a global insurance brokerage and employee specialist serving over 1.5 million clients in 15 offices across the world. With 2+ years of experience writing about the subject, she aims to demystify the world of insurance for readers with the latest updates, guides and articles on the blog.

Serena earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of British Columbia, Canada. As such, she is an avid advocate of mental health and is fascinated by all things psychology (especially if it’s cognitive psychology!).

Her previous work experience includes teaching toddlers to read, writing for a travel/wellness online magazine, and then a business news blog. These combined experiences give her the skills and insights she needs to explain complex ideas in a succinct way. Being the daughter of an immigrant and a traveler herself, she is passionate about educating expats and digital nomads on travel and international health insurance.

Latest posts by Serena Fung (see all)

• Your Guide to Singapore Work Permits, S Pass, and Employment Pass (Updated 2024) - March 18, 2024
• Dermatological Care and Your Private Health Insurance in Singapore - December 1, 2023
• Thalassemia in Singapore: Everything You Need to Know - November 10, 2023