Health Insurance TPA of India gets first MD-CEO

Company says it would not conduct any business without getting requisite licence from Irda

P K Bhagat has been appointed the first managing director and chief executive officer of Health Insurance TPA (third-party administrator) of India for a period of two years or till the time he attains superannuation.

According to details sourced from the company’s disclosures to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Bhagat’s appointment was announced at the firm’s extraordinary general meeting on November 13. Health Insurance TPA of India, the common in-house TPA of public sector general insurers was incorporated in August. In a filing to MCA, the firm said it would not conduct any business without getting the requisite licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.

To administer claims, every TPA has to secure a licence from Irda. Sources said Health Insurance TPA of India would apply for a licence to Irda early next week.

Officials involved in setting up this TPA said they expected the company to begin business by April 1 2014. The company has National Insurance Company, New India Assurance Company, United Insurance Company, Oriental Insurance Company and General Insurance Corporation (GIC) of India as stakeholders. While the first four have 23.75 per cent stake each, GIC has five per cent.

The company will look into health claims and handle most of the claims received by these general insurers. It is expected the company will prohibit large-scale leakages while settling insurance claims in the health segment and process claims of public general insurers in-house, rather than by an external agency.