shifts in P&C claims tech

Hi there,

In our Q2’17 briefing with Willis Towers Watson, a large focus of the report was on claims-related technology from recent acquisitions to new startups in the space to case studies of how incumbents were making changes.

Recently, we’ve seen more news on the claims side. Metromile launched its new claims system for certain claims types and last week Farmers partnered with drone startup Kespry to help assess damage to residential roofs after significant weather events and make residential claims adjusting more efficient.

Here’s what Kespry CEO George Mathew said on the partnership:

“Claims adjusters are still going to be coming out to view the assessment of the extent of damage on a home. With the assistance of the drone, that same claims adjuster can come on site and be 5 to 6 times more productive and way more safer because they can actually cover that roof by the drones flying overhead…And so the workload becomes way more faster and able to accomplish more in a single day, whereas they’d go from covering 2 to 3 roofs a day to as much as 10 to 15.“

Meanwhile, at the start of this month Allstate management said on its earnings call that approximately half of Allstate’s vehicles are now being inspected through QuickFoto Claim, the virtual estimating service it unveiled in September 2013. 

What does this mean? Allstate has 937 auto claim drive-in inspection locations across the country. Today, many of the locations have already been or are currently being phased out (in addition to the reduced need for field adjusters). It can be easy to forget, but as technology continues to make its way through the insurance industry and the claims process, auto and residential, there are and will continue to be very real employment consequences behind such shifts.
 

Mental health coverage on the rise

According to a new report from the NBGH, 56% of large US employers surveyed plan to offer telehealth for behavioral health services as a covered benefit in 2018. That’s more than double the amount this year.

From online therapy platforms to meditation apps, we’ve also seen startups in the mental health sector have also seen huge upswings in deal activity. See the data.

Gene is out of the bottle

Earlier this month, The Economist reported on how insurers were responding to the spreading of genetic testing. We’ve been tracking developments here, and my colleague Nikhil Krishnan recently put together a 69-slide presentation on the genomics space (available here).

Have a great week,

Matt
@mlcwong