ZhongAn Online is a digital insurer in China that was formed through the collaborative efforts of Ping An, Tencent and Alibaba. As the name suggests, it is an insurance service that is run fully online, which helps them widen their net while also lowering operating and distribution costs.

Intelligent Open Platform for Insurers

Through their insurance provisions, ZhongAn Technology has accumulated immense data which it claims covers 70% of the latest medical insurance directory, 180,000 drug databases, and connections across hundreds of hospitals across the country.

Therefore it announced recently that it has launched a domestic SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platform designed for insurers called the Intelligent Open Platform for Insurers.

The project was launched with AXA Tianping, one of the more prominent property and casualty insurance companies in China. They are also the first insurance company to join the new platform.

AXA Tianping brings to the table its own resources in medical insurance, local experience, and resources as well.

The goal is for medical and insurance ecosystems to adopt the SaaS to bring more convenience, accuracy and efficient insurance data, and all for lower costs than they might be used to.

As the first insurance provider to be on the system, AXA Tianping was a part of the launch of the SaaS platform.

The platform was built based on in-depth analysis, consolidation and value exploration of medical data it has to provide the following 3 core areas – access to medical records, insurance repository and risk management services.

The platform aims to consolidate an immense library of data, some that might not otherwise be available to insurers, with data processing and an AI technical team.

While the insurance market in China is developing rapidly, ZhongAn claims that medical databases that provide data support for it were not satisfactory.

Data Infrastructure For Insurance in China Still Sorely Lacking

They cite problems such as poor data, lack of comprehensive products and unsatisfactory product upgrading as failing to live up to the rapidly shifting business needs of insurance companies.

Yang Yong , Chief Claims Officer of AXA Tianping, said that he believes the platform will facilitate innovation upgrade of insurance claims services, which in return will benefit AXA Tianping as well, now it can address medical record enquiries authorized by customers, direct access to claims and insurance inspection, etc.

So for AXA Tianping’s end, this SaaS platform means that claim data will be available with “no collection, no submission and no delay”. The platform also relieves the internal pressure of systems development.

Wu Yiyu, Deputy General Manager of ZhongAn Technology, said:

“Through our exploration and innovation of insurance claims service model, ZhongAn Technology can provide services of rapid access to medical claims data, online regional inspection and enquiries on medical insurance directories to our insurance customers, helping them improve efficiency and grasp opportunities early in the highly competitive insurance market.”

At present, ZhongAn Technology has signed agreements with 10 insurers, such as Hengqin Life Insurance, Jixiang Life Insurance and some third-party management companies of medical insurance, while it has ongoing collaboration discussions with others like China Life Insurance, Taiping and AIA.

Featured Image Credit: ZhongAn Technology