Eyes Rs 700 cr premium income this fiscal.
Chennai-based health insurance company Star Health and Allied Insurance is planning to infuse Rs 28 crore in order to achieve a premium income of Rs 650-700 crore in 2009-10. Last year, the premium collection stood at Rs 510 crore.
Speaking to Business Standard, V Jagannathan, chairman and managing director, Star Health and Allied Insurance, said the proposed additional capital would be infused by promoters and used for expansion plans for achieving the premium target. Star Health is a joint venture between Oman Insurance Company and ETA Ascon Group, UAE.
The company’s current capital base is Rs 105 crore. According to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda), a health insurance company should have a minimum capital of Rs 50 crore.
Star Health has 139 branches and is planning to add another 20. It caters to 65 million people living below poverty line (BPL) in Andhra Pradesh, 1.3 million in Tamil Nadu and offers insurance cover to 400,000 BPL people across five districts of Chandigarh.
Speaking about the newly-launched medical advisory service, he said this was the first-of-its-kind by any health insurer in the country and offers an expert tele-medical advisory helpline for Star Health's policyholders free of cost. The insurer has tied up with Hyderabad-based Health Management and Research Institute (HMRI) to offer the service.
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Policy holders' call on landing will be attended by trained paramedics who when needed would be diverted to doctors and specialists for offering medical advisory. The facility is currently available in English, Tamil and Hindi.
To start with, the company will have 10 doctors and 30 paramedics experts for this service and is targeting 200 calls a day.