Why IT is the basis of the work of an insurance company: 8 reasons

Like many other businesses, INGO Insurance Company chose the path of accelerated IT infrastructure development at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. For understanding: today, the average number of requests from clients in the field of medical insurance is about 2,000 thousand per day. This is about 3% of all insured persons served by INGO, or almost 85 applications per hour.

But during the pandemic, the flow of applications was much denser. According to Maryna Zvarych, people tried to get a consultation for the slightest sign of illness – this is understandable, but it created a huge burden on the staff and required the insurance company to find new ways to process an endless number of applications. Then the call-back service (“call me back”) was configured. The client left an application and the operator called him back to complete the application. And many processes, which previously required a personal application of the applicant, were gradually transferred online.

COVID-19 became a kind of training for the company, which allowed not to get lost after February 24, 2022. Therefore, the martial law practically did not affect the volume or quality of services provided under health insurance contracts. Moreover, after recovering from the first shock during March-April 2022, insurance companies began to work on improving operations. This made it possible to maintain business operations, as well as ensure the safety of employees and customers.

In particular, the document flow and processes related to the reimbursement of costs were completely transferred to the online mode. Now you can issue the policy itself remotely – you only need to have a qualified person for this electronic signature (KEP).

All that is required from the client is to leave an application, describing his complaints. In the future, his health will be taken care of by the insurance company, in which all processes are already established and fully automated. The company receives applications from clients by phone or through chat bot a professional medical consultant who can immediately organize the provision of medical care according to the complaints.

Requests left through the chatbot are processed as quickly and thoroughly as phone calls. It is enough for the client to describe his complaints and wishes regarding the service. Such an application will be automatically processed by a medical consultant.

The service can be provided by any medical institution that has a contract with an insurance company. Thus, the insurance client has access to assistance as quickly as possible, without queues, without long waiting for an appointment, and in exactly the institution that it is convenient for him to visit. You also don’t need to waste your time looking for a specialist and making an appointment. All in online mode an insurance medical consultant will do.

Medical insurance allows you to guarantee the provision of a certain amount of medical services to the insured person, which the insurance company pays for in the event of an insured event – the occurrence of health problems. The list of medical services that are guaranteed to be paid for is specified in the insurance contract. Often, not only the cost of providing medical care, but also the necessary medicines are covered.

The insurance company “INGO” has ARI integration (software components that automatically update data between clients and servers) with clinics and the largest pharmacy chains. Thanks to this, the medical consultant can register the applicant to the clinic online and quickly organize the collection of medicines for the client who has passed the doctor’s consultation. A person will not have to go around several pharmacies – all drugs will be waiting for him at one point, which the person will choose on his own. ARI-integration minimizes operational errors, because the situation is excluded when someone mispronounced or misheard the name of the drug due to placing an order over the phone.

Previously, the medication registration process also took place online, but it took a lot of time: creating an application, sending it to the pharmacy by e-mail, spending time reviewing the application and responding accordingly, etc. Now everything happens very quickly and conveniently for all participants in the process. The customer simply comes and collects his medication, which has already been ordered by the medical consultant according to the doctor’s prescription, free of charge. And the pharmacy forms an account for the insurance company based on the results of a month or other period and receives payment for the goods. Bills go through electronic document managementbecause we are talking about huge detailed documents for hundreds of positions.

The processing of data regarding the services provided and the drugs dispensed also takes place as much as possible automated. The information is entered into databases and analyzed in terms of how the policy works for each specific client. If this amount of data had to be processed manually, it would require hiring hundreds of specialists. And therefore, the policies would not be as affordable as they are now.

Therefore, IT solutions allow you to save time, money, and tons of paper.

Yes, this option was introduced to save clients who were forced to go abroad or to another region of Ukraine due to the war, but would like to continue receiving medical care from their specialists. Opportunities for remote support and online consulting work within the framework of the so-called service “telemedicine” – consultations in a special application or even just through the usual messengers. An appointment for a consultation takes place according to the same principle as a regular visit to a doctor.

The option can be used to obtain an alternative doctor’s opinion if the insured person is not satisfied with the previous specialist’s consultation or needs an additional examination.

“INGO” insurance company continued to work efficiently during the acute phase of aggression, when Russian troops approached Kyiv, and during winter power outages. No matter what happens, no business can afford prolonged downtime. After all, we are talking about the potential loss of millions of hryvnias during one day! Therefore, decisions regarding the organization of work should be as flexible as possible.

Responding to customer calls at the beginning of the war made it possible to have our own in-house call center, whose specialists work in different regions. While part of the employees made decisions about evacuation, the other part, which was in conditionally safe areas, processed customer applications.

When the attacks on the energy infrastructure began, the central office of “INGO” in Kyiv provided two powerful generators, which made it possible not to depend on external power supply. It worked for other regions redistribution of calls between operators physically located in different parts of the country. If someone could not work due to a lack of electricity, the call was transferred to another consultant available at a specific time.

For their part, medical facilities also demonstrated their willingness to work. Many clinics, pharmacy chains and laboratories, located even in the immediate vicinity of the contact line, have maintained their work activity. Last but not least, the work of medical institutions continued thanks to the possibility of consulting clients online.

Special attention has traditionally been paid to the issue of medical data security, because its leakage is an extremely undesirable phenomenon for both medical service providers and clients. What is happening on the insurance company’s side to prevent the release of sensitive information?

Firstly, the insurance system within the framework of ARI-integration does not have access to all the data of medical information systems of clinics. It is simply not necessary to serve insured persons. As part of the integration with the clinics, the insurance company can see the schedule of doctors in the facility and add the patient to the record. With limited access to the medical system of clinics, the medical consultant may choose to offer the client different time slots and different locations for appointments. In total, about 50 medical institutions are involved in the cooperation. And the clinic, in turn, immediately sees information about the patient from the insurance company and his complaint.

Second, customer data, calculations, etc. are stored and duplicated in encrypted form using cloud technologies. Therefore, information security is not tied to the physical placement and functioning of servers. Strahova also does not have all the medical data about the client: the available information concerns only those actions he took with the involvement of his policy (visits to doctors, purchase of medicines under the insurance contract, etc.).

Yes, because this is exactly why data is duplicated in cloud services. For this, “INGO” chose a private cloud from the GigaCloud service, which was not inferior to the company’s own data center in terms of its functionality.

‍GigaCloud built for an insurance company isolated private cloud in the data center in Warsaw. The insurance company moved all services critical to her work. Websites, a client’s personal account, a contact center, an internal system that serves clients, keeps records of all insurance contracts, appeals, etc., are located outside of Ukraine. In general, only non-critical data remained on the internal servers. Additional security is provided by the GigaCloud backup service, which allows you to use the operator’s repository to store backup copies in a separate cloud.

Also, in October 2022, INGO implemented hybrid IT infrastructure. The work was divided into two data centers, which guaranteed another level of protection during force majeure.

The only case when INGO Insurance Company suffered a significant IT attack occurred during the period of activity of the Petya virus (2017). No medical data was leaked then. But already at that stage, the company significantly strengthened IT protection systems.

Six years in a row, having accumulated experience of COVID-19 and working in wartime mode, the company is ready to effectively cope with any challenges and guarantee uninterrupted and safe work for customers.