In-house TPA to be operational from Jan 2014

Move expected to reduce costs for players who pay approximately 6% of premiums to TPAs to settle claims

The in-house third party administrator (TPA) for public general insurers would be operational from January 1, 2014, according to G Srinivasan, chairman and managing director of New India Assurance.

This common TPA concept was mooted last September, and is expected to have National Insurance Company, New India Assurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company and General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) as stakeholders.

Srinivasan said that that they are putting in place IT mechanisms and recruiting personnel for the new entity.

The common TPA has been proposed to prohibit large-scale leakages while settling insurance claims in the health segment.

According to industry players. it is expected to speed up the claim-settlement process as well as reduce the claims ratio of insurance companies.

This move is also expected to reduce costs for these insurance players, who pay a commission of approximately 6% of premiums to TPAs to settle claims.