Hospitals & Healthcare
3 Feb 2025|Irving Stackpole
Featured in Hospitals & Healthcare Review | February 2025
Irving Stackpole uncovers how artificial intelligence is transforming the way patients interact with healthcare providers, and how insurance companies can capitalise on new technology.
Unstoppable economic forces are pushing us toward collisions in travel, medical travel and the insurance sectors. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) will transform these markets, and our experience of them. People are travelling more, going across borders for health, wellness and medical services, and purchasing travel insurance. The convergence of these three dynamics – travel, insurance and AI – demands our attention. Being aware and informed enables us to realise the benefits, accept change and manage controversies.
Data and historical information about fraud is being pooled into large data sets and used to more accurately anticipate inappropriate claims submission
Along with the growth of international travel overall, there are more health tourists: people seeking health, wellness, and medical services abroad. Reliable data on international medical travel is available in only a few regions, but evidence of this growth is seen in the increasing demand for health, wellness, and medical services. For elective ‘lifestyle’ services such as cosmetic procedures, the key drivers appear to be access and price, while for more complex medical services such as elective surgery, the key drivers are availability and wait times.
Role of AI for insurers
The increase in global travel corresponds with travel insurance providers using various tools in the AI toolbox to help the bottom line, attract and retain existing customers, manage claims and detect fraud.
Efficiency is one of the key drivers of the use of AI by the insurance sector. The business is characterised by high administrative burden: so much of the operation relies on repetitive tasks handled by agents, adjusters and a host of other operatives. This explains why insurance businesses are among the early adopters of new technology. Whatever can reduce the need for human time and effort, especially repetitive tasks, without sacrificing accuracy and improving reliability, can often be cost-justified. Digital scanning and optical character recognition (OCR) are good examples. AI offers entirely new horizons for efficiencies.
Risk assessment and pricing are also being transformed by AI: with large-scale claims data, insurance providers are better able to estimate risks, in real time, more accurately, and price products accordingly. The historical pricing models, built on actuarial tables and global risk estimates, either over- or underestimate real risk. Predictive analytics allow greater accuracy and reliability. These analytics help increase the bottom line and accurately adjust premiums.
Personalisation is another area where AI is making a huge impact. Using claims and demographic history, travel insurance providers can tailor travel insurance packages at a personal level, targeting the needs of particular travellers in specific regions. This personalisation attracts more insurance consumers and creates higher levels of loyalty.
Finally, AI is making waves in fraud detection and prevention. The cost of fraud in insurance markets is a source of waste. Data and historical information about fraud is being pooled into large data sets and used to more accurately anticipate inappropriate claims submission. Reducing inappropriate claims and the associated administrative costs and payments (whether fraudulent or erroneous) improves the bottom line, allows for more accurate and profitable pricing, and expedites claims adjudication.
The consumer experience transformed by tech
Improving the consumer experience is a top strategic goal along every touch point in the travel value chain. The application and use of new technologies and AI are already delivering on their promise.