ICICI Lombard expects to receive 600 claims related to losses due to Vardah cyclone

Country’s largest non-life insurer, ICICI Lombard, on Wednesday said it is expecting to receive a total of 600 claims related to losses due to Vardah cyclone which devastated the northern part of Tamil Nadu recently.

The company is not expecting the huge number of claims to be generated after the cyclone unlike it had settled in case of Chennai floods a year ago.

“We have already received 4 claims related to Vardah cyclone and are expecting around 600 claims from the natural disaster. While 400-500 claims may be generated at ICICI Lombard under motor segment, remaining claims may come from property and marine insurance,” ICICI Lombard Chief, Underwriting, Claims and Reinsurance Sanjay Datta told reporters here today.

“We have already deployed a team of 20 surveyors in the affected areas of Tamil Nadu to find out details of the claims,” he added.

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However, Datta maintained that the amount of claims to be settled due to Vardah cyclone may not be too high when compared to the last year’s Chennai floods in which the company had settled around 10,000 claims by paying Rs 500 crore and out of which Rs 100 crore of claims were settled under the motor segment alone.

Motor was the largest portfolio in the company’s bouquet of offerings as it comprises 40 per cent of total portfolio, while health insurance continues to be the second largest portfolio, comprising 20 per cent of the total portfolio.

Giving his outlook on the industry, he said Indian healthcare market in the country was estimated at USD 70 billion and 70 per cent of healthcare infrastructure confined to top 20 cities. Health insurance in the country was likely to grow at more than 20 per cent CAGR until 2020.

According to Datta, at ICICI Lombard, health insurance segment was growing at an annual rate of 28 per cent.

Meanwhile, a company report said that 41 per cent patients intimate the treatment details to insurers between 16-30 days. Around 85 per cent of reimbursement claims are intimated post 15 days of admission, leaving no scope of insurer intervention in quality control or cost saving.

Talking about motor insurance, it said that growing demand for taxis bolstered by app-based ride hailing aggregators. Ola and Uber are estimated to have around 550,000 and 350,000 drivers respectively with the market expected to grow to USD 7 billion by 2020, it said.

On long-term two wheeler policies, the report said that it was gaining traction as 650,000 plus policies issued between Jan-Oct, 2016 in the industry and 1 in 12 customers currently opt for long-term policies.