Artificial Intelligence and Ottonova, Consumer-Centric, “digital-first” insurance company, based in Munich, Germany
Overview
Ottonova, Consumer-Centric, is a “digital-first” insurance company, provides health insurance for patients and employees based in Munich (Germany). The company develops an AI-based chat App platform where customers can register and access the clinic insurance coverage plans for medical services. They offer automated AI-based concierge services like doctor consultations, treatment plans, medical data storage, prescription management, and more with help of big data processing. Apart from concierge services, they also facilitate customers with health and fitness policy management application where customers can leverage the maximum benefit of coverage plans. They deal with digital products that set standards in terms of usability and customer focus. The main core focus area t to avoid paperwork, long waiting times, and opaque structures and use technological advances to create a customer experience that sets new standards.
How Ottonova revamps the market in the insurance and health sector.
According to mHealth App Economics 2017 study, 53% of decision-makers and experts of digital health believe that health insurance companies are the future number one distribution channel for mHealth apps, overtaking even “app stores”, “hospitals”, “physicians” and “pharmacies”. Ottonova founded in 2016, the first digital private health insurance company in Germany is one of the large beneficiaries of the digital era, have to vision is to transform the whole health insurance/healthcare system. It currently growing at 2.06% YoY with net total funding of $93.4 M run by 100 employees. According to Yvonne Gründler, Chief Product Officer at Ottonova, mHealth insurance market with shape the trend and drives the Insurance sector in the next five years and Ottonova will take full advantage of the digital era by offering the first digital health insurance experience integrated into the company services with setting new standards in Europe.
Ottonova provides a range of health insurance between the First Class and Business Class. They offer unique health care plans for ex-pats (EU or non-EU) who live and work in Germany with unique benefits like 24/7 English speaking concierge, Digital doctor’s visit, Digital timeline, Cheaper ex-pat plan, etc.
They enable customers to take care of their health and everything regarding their health insurance, from starts with the process of signing up and signing the contract, totally digitally and online. Once the customer has signed the contract, they can download an app and through the mobile app, access all services, including a digital doctor’s visit, check-ups, and appointments, remind clients through digital channels such as the app. They keep customer/patients’ interests at heart and offer the right service at the right time. They use technologies and mobile technologies at a large stage to get much closer to their customers and better cooperation their services and better ways of reimbursement.
How German-based health insurance company Ottonova works.
Today Health Insurance Company integrates and bundles all relevant resources, such as actors or functionalities, on its platform (e.g., actors such as customers, employees, or doctors; functionalities such as a personal concierge). As all resources are integrated and connected via the platform, Ottonova orchestrates them and offer all services via its app. Figure 1. Shows all services provided by Ottonova with Service Dominant Architecture (SDA).
Customer submits an invoice for medication via an app (system of interaction), then a connected medication check (system of participation) and the digital medical record check (system of operant resources) can be done to ensure the customer does not have an existing allergy or intolerance to the prescribed medication and, if necessary, provide the customer with a message in real-time.
Ottonova offers hassle-free access to a digital doc. Here’s how it works:
- Using the Concierge service in the Ottonova app, request a video call with a doctor.
- voucher code sends to your contact number.
- Enter the code in e-Doctors, a partner app of Ottonova.
- E-Doctors will connect you to a board-certified doctor who is available without waiting time.
The concierge chat in your Ottonova app will help you:
- When looking for the right doctor — whether for acute cases or preventive examinations
- With quick and easy appointment finding when you are planning several different doctor appointments
- For questions about your health — almost in real-time
- For all concerns about your insurance — without the hassle of searching for a suitable contact person
- The quick obtaining of a second opinion, for example, when an operation is in the room
Leveraging technology OCR to scan documents digitally in Ottonova app and store data in text form in the database for later use. To quickly reimburse your bills, need to upload your invoice document to Ottonova app using the scanner, concierge customer care immediately reviews the invoice, and in few minutes, the money will be deposited in your bank account. So they totally cut out paperwork time by customers. All documents related to your checkup with doctors like Diagnoses and their implications, Treatment reports, Therapies carried out, Medication plans, Information for emergencies, Vaccinations received, Doctor’s letters, etc stored in Ottonova app database which can be accessed through customer anytime.
Use and acceptance of AI in health care are increasing
So we are still at the beginning and a lot of research is still needed to be able to use AI in a really profitable way in all sectors. The health 4.0 revolution more about AI includes everything that will have a positive impact on your health in the future and make your life easier. The Future Health Index of 2019 shows that 41% of medical staff are already using AI and 70% said they felt comfortable with it. So there is widespread acceptance of AI in healthcare. Being the first digital health insurer in Germany, Not only digitization, but the quality of data and its protection are top priorities for Ottonova. Further, they facilitate decision-making processes and optimizes processes in terms of time, efficiency, and costs. Delivering personalized and tailor-made coverage by engagement through the Internet of Things (IoT), data analysis, and mobile Innovations. Machine learning is already being used by Ottonova to optimize the first processing of claims or the creation of contracts. With automated processes, invoices submitted by the customer could be recognized, assigned, and pre-evaluated extremely quickly. So they see in the next three to five years, AI implementation at a large scale especially with recurring activities.
Not only they are using AI for decision-making, but they also protect the Personal Safety and Privacy of consumers. They use advanced technology such as Blockchain smart-contracts, Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous driving technology, and new cybersecurity methods to protect consumer identity and coverage of new risks.
Ottonova believes in more Benefits from the sharing economy. They leveraging the expertise and scale of strategic partners to anticipate changing consumer behavior and providing customers with added services through their smartphone.
Ottonova next Vision
To continues to have a strong growth trajectory in 2020, Ottonova planning financial injection in some of the key areas for the expansion of sales and marketing activities. The goal is to increase the customer base through increased presence on television, and via social media channels. Although Health insurance companies (HICs) have taken full advantage of digital technologies to better meet their members’ expectations, the vast majority of HICs have little impact in the app market with most of the companies not applying the best practice standards for their apps. The design space of the Service-Dominant Architecture (SDA) enables the incorporation of all resources (i.e., data, functions) required for customer-centered, valuable solutions. In the coming year, Ottonova focusing more on leverage technology to improve the care of insured persons. Ottonova already using topics of data and data processes potentially to better understand customers and treat them more individually accordingly. They are still looking to explore technology from big data to artificial intelligence to blockchain and cloud certified AWS services to leverage benefit from these innovative technologies in the medium term.
Reference:
- Markus Warg, Becoming a Platform Organization: How Incumbent Companies Stay Competitive, Cutter Business Technology Journal, Vol. 31, №11/12, 2018
- https://craft.co/ottonova
- https://www.ottonova.de/gesundheit-4-0/digitaltag-ki-gesundheit
- https://www.ottonova.de/dein-ottonova/ottonova-concierge-menschlich
- https://insurlab-germany.com/en/ottonova-introduces-himself-interview-with-jesko-kannenberg/
- https://research2guidance.com/how-the-german-pioneer-in-the-insurance-and-health-industries-ottonova-revamps-the-market-interview-with-yvonne-grundler/
