'More motor insurance claimants avail cashless facility'

As many as 90 percent of the claimants under motor insurance policyholders avail cashless claims settlement facility whereas it is is around 70 percent in the case of claimants under health insurance policy, said a top official of the Insurance sector.

"The cashless claims settlement facility - where charges are paid by the insurers directly to the garages - is availed by nearly 90 percent of the claimants under our motor insurance policies. In the case of health insurance it is around 70 percent," Cholamandalam MS General Company Ltd. managing director S.S. Gopalarathnam told reporters here Thursday.

"Cashless settlement facility in the case of health insurance is mostly availed by middle and lower middle class people whereas the affluent sections first settle the hospital bills and later claim from us. Their primary focus is on the patient's health," he said.

The Indo-Japanese non-life joint venture Cholamandalam MS General launched a software application enabling its motor insurance policyholders to avail range of services like notification of claims, cashless settlement of accidental damages to the vehicle, renewal of policies and others.

According to Gopalarathnam, the mobile application for the motor insurance policyholders follows a similar facility offered to the company's health insurance policyholders.

"We want to have the first mover advantage in the industry. However the adaptability of the policyholders to the mobile application seems to be slower," he said.

Cholamandalam MS General's motor insurance policyholders can download the software application on their smart phones.

The company has logged around seven percent gross premium growth during the first six months of the current fiscal, said Gopalarathnam.