Now That You Can Use It, Make Sure You Own It
If you get it regularly, consider yourself lucky. And if you understand it, consider yourself blessed. We’re talking about your health insurance plan’s claims data – known as claims reports in the industry. The value of claims reports are often overlooked because only experts understand them. They contain the secrets on how to provide the highest quality health insurance for your employees for the lowest price and stop problems before they occur IF you know what to look for. Most insurers aren’t willing to provide the data. They consider your plan’s claims data part of their intellectual property. We do not agree with this approach or position from the insurers.
The Big Fuss Over Big Data
While the term “Big Data” has been around since 2005, insurance is historically slow to adapt to new technologies. 2016 saw the birth of “Insuretech” when disruptive data analysis techniques migrated from the financial world to insurance. As a CFO or HRD responsible for managing the budget for your employees’ health insurance plan, you should be making decisions based on an in-depth analysis of your claims data. New tools like One World Cover’s health insurance claims data analysis Control Room SaaS platform allow you to do that. But what if your insurer won’t cooperate because they say they own your data and refuse to provide it to you in a regular or timely manner? After all, this data is yours isn’t it?
The Devil’s In The Details…and The Contract
According to insurance industry experts, data ownership starts with contracts. And there’s no time like the present to take a good look at yours. If you’re lucky, there’s no mention of data ownership. If you’re not so lucky, the insurer owns it and can decide where and when you have access. But no matter what your current contract says, the future is up to you. At policy renewal time or when you change insurers, make sure your contract states clearly that your health insurance plan’s claims data (without any confidential information that might put companies in a difficult ethical position) belongs to you to access and use as you like. Then together with a good broker you can leverage it for clarity and insight into a brighter future for all concerned.
If these steps seem daunting to follow all by your lonesome, it pays to hire yourself an independent health insurance broker like One World Cover. We can deliver your data through our Control Room SaaS platform. Get in touch: [email protected]
