This InsureTech Is Building Long-term Relations Loop Health aspires to be the first to develop a health assurance system in which physicians and insurers are involved in long-term health and well-being of customers

The COVID-19 pandemic has put the spotlight squarely on India's healthcare sector and emphasizes the urgent need for a strong healthy workforce as an integral part of every resilient health system.

With the pandemic came unforeseen expenses such as personal protective equipment, oxygen cylinders, and medicines, alongside huge hospital bills, thereby reinforcing the need for health insurance. But even in a country as large as ours, access to health insurance has historically been low with only 10-15 per cent getting it through insurance companies. The primary reason behind the hesitation has been affordability. While the pandemic has definitely pushed people to explore the option, most still depend on their employers to provide insurance. But even that path is riddled with challenges. This reality triggered an idea in the mind of Mayank Kale as he set out to accomplish his vision of making health insurance accessible to every Indian.

Loop Health chief executive officer and co-founder Mayank Kale told Entrepreneur India, "Before launching Loop Health, I worked on developing digital health records for patients. During that period, I became aware of the fundamental problem in fee-for-service healthcare systems: physicians get paid to treat people when they are unwell, not to keep them healthy. There are financial incentives for the healthcare system to overprescribe surgeries, diagnostics, and drugs. Working with rural clinics, I witnessed first-hand how patients suffer due to lack of medical education. The healthcare system is financially motivated to overprescribe drugs and recommending needless operations."

With Loop Health, he wanted to create a company that actively cared about people and that was highly motivated to keep them healthy by integrating insurance with primary health care.

Kale believes that our healthcare system is largely failing, particularly in terms of access to services, infrastructure, and patient expectations when it comes to healthcare delivery. Keeping that in mind, he created a system based on an assurance rather than insurance.

At Loop Health, they aspire to be the first to develop a Health Assurance system in which physicians and insurers are involved in long-term health and well-being of their customers. This is only achievable if primary care physicians, specialty networks, and health insurers are all financially aligned. They want to completely alter the medical insurance sector by bridging the gap between health insurance and health care, transforming it into a more empathic, accessible, and preventive system.

Loop's doctors are on the same team as the insurance company. Their goal is to keep patients healthy and out of the hospital by providing great primary care. As a result, insurance companies receive fewer claims and insurance costs less, he said.

Loop Health is backed by marquee investors such as General Catalyst and Elevation Capital, with participation from Vinod Khosla (through Khosla Ventures), YC Continuity Fund, Tribe Capital, and Sierra Ventures.

Since its inception, the platform has raised a total of $14.3 million in funding over 3 rounds. They have recently raised a Series A round of $12 million led by Elevation Capital and General Catalyst.

Previous funding rounds have provided Loop Health with the necessary runway to expand the business and sales, focus on product development, and continue collaborating with healthcare providers. They plan to do the same in the future too.

The total addressable market is nearly $8 billion in insurance spend and $150 billion in healthcare spend. Loop Health is catering to a market of $4.2 billion in group healthcare spend.

They are currently supporting nearly 50,000 employees in 150 organizations. To name a few they cater to Shaadi.com, rediff.com, Helpshift, Knorr Bremse, Shoptimize, Weikfield, and Moonshine Meadery, and others, for their insurance and healthcare needs.

According to Kale, group health insurance (benefits) is an untapped market in the country, with most purchases made by firm's HRs through traditional offline brokers. Existing brokers sometimes overlook the mid-market and SME segments, frequently supplied by small brokers or not served at all, to focus on large enterprise customers. Furthermore, their services are confined to basic health insurance coverage with no health benefits.

While the majority of its competitors focus on insurance, Loop Health claims to be India's only company focused on healthcare assurance with combined primary care and insurance plans.

Members can use the mobile app at any time to obtain preventive care, a specialized medical advisor, and a team of doctors. They also provide additional health and wellness perks. yoga and meditation sessions, mental health consultations, discounts on lab testing and medicines, and tailored care planning.

"While building Loop Health, some of the challenges that we faced were driving habit-changing preventative care for our members. Not every member is ready to take the first step towards a healthy lifestyle, maintaining our rapid expansion (we are increasing at a rate of 40 per cent month on month and scaling insurance operations to meet client needs," he shared.

As Loop Health continues to grow, they are said to be on a mission to provide coverage to 1 million employees and their families by the end of 2022, scale insurance operations to meet rising customer demand and create habit-changing preventative healthcare for its members and offer them in-person treatment through physical clinics in select cities.