Star Health wants 65% of business to come from smaller cities: Anand Roy

You have completed 20 years of operations. What’s the road ahead?

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Coinciding with this milestone year, we have launched a product which is almost 20 per cent cheaper than our regular products in the market. We believe that now, with 18 per cent goods and services tax (GST) rate gone and with a 20 per cent cheaper product, almost a 40 per cent benefit can be given to the consumers, especially in Tier-II and Tier-III cities where the insurance penetration has to increase much faster.

Today, 50 per cent of our business comes from Tier-II and Tier-III cities and it is growing fast. We want to take it to at least 60-65 per cent in the next three years.

Despite all the efforts put in by all companies and privatisation [of insurance], only 60 million Indians have retail health insurance, against a 1.5 billion population. We believe that it is a multi-decadal growth opportunity, and the regulator has set a vision of “Insurance for all by 2047”.

To achieve that vision, increasing retail health penetration in the smaller towns is very essential. The new product is an effort towards this, and we believe that 10 per cent of our new business for this financial year will come from this particular product, targeting Rs 500 crore income from this product in smaller cities.

What is your outlook for the year?

We achieved a gross written premium (GWP) of Rs 20,400 crore in the previous financial year [FY26]. We have set a target of Rs 24,000 crore this financial year, which is a little less than a 20 per cent growth rate. Our goal is to achieve the Rs 30,000-crore mark by FY28.

We are not running after market share for the sake of it. We have been maintaining our market share above 30 per cent for many years now.

After the GST waiver in September, what changes have you seen in the health insurance market?

Star Health’s business has grown two-fold after the GST waiver. Also, for the industry, it has grown significantly.

Not only among new business customers, but we are also seeing good improvement in our existing renewals and persistency. We have seen at least a 2 per cent improvement in volume after the GST waiver, and this is at a larger base of 20 million.

AI is reshaping the insurance industry. How are you adapting?

We have invested a lot in AI and machine learning models as far as our claim services are concerned. Around 25 per cent of our claims are now processed through AI models, which are totally straight-through in nature – without human intervention. This hopefully will become 50 per cent by the end of this financial year, and within two years everything will be done through AI as far as claim services are concerned. This will improve customer experience and efficiency in claims management in terms of error-free processing and better fraud detection.

How are you ensuring safety, as you and a few other firms have faced data-leak incidents?

After that unfortunate incident, we have increased our investments in cybersecurity and InfoSec by huge margins. Today, we invest close to Rs 250 crore in our technology and information security-related matters every year, which is among the highest in the industry.

I can say with confidence that Star Health would probably be a leader in information security practices. We have enabled multiple initiatives, whether it is encryption of data at all levels or multi-factor authentication for accessing all our platforms and services. Everything that is best-in-class has been done. We will continue to invest to stay ahead of the curve.