{Insurtech watch: Onsurity} Democratising affordable healthcare experiences for SME workforces with smart tech

This insurtech platform is teching up the health benefits systems in Indian SMEs to democratise affordable healthcare experiences for their workforces.

Insurance is a field that has been in need of an overhaul for a long time, especially healthcare plans that organisations offer an employee. The SME sector often struggles to provide the best plans on a budget. MSMEs in India often employ gig workers and blue-collar workers, who do not have access to proper healthcare or health benefits.

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Onsurity, a startup that simplifies employee healthcare with technology solutions, intends to address this sector with the most affordable yet comprehensive employee healthcare plans. It is democratising affordable healthcare experiences for SMEs and their workforce in India. Onsurity has built smart technology that’s easy to use, gives people an advocate in their health journey, and helps employers unblock working capital by managing cost.

The Tech Panda spoke to Yogesh Agarwal, Founder of Onsurity, who says that the biggest challenge for the SME sector in India is dearth of insurance products.

We are pioneering, making healthcare accessible and affordable through monthly payment based subscription, making it more easy on SMEs and startups to be able to afford healthcare for their team without eating into the working capital

“The biggest issue for the SME sector in India, with a turnover of upwards of INR 2-3 crore, is the lack of availability of insurance products, as no insurance company is willing to underwrite such a small company, because they do not have the technology capability to handle so many SMEs which are so fragmented,” he explains.

“In order to crack this market, digital was the key, and the entire purchase process requires only two to three minutes, where the employer gives the GSTIN number and selects the plan and receives the benefits,” he adds.

“We are pioneering, making healthcare accessible and affordable through monthly payment based subscription, making it more easy on SMEs and startups to be able to afford healthcare for their team without eating into the working capital. We have developed one of the most organised and well established claim concierge teams to aid its members for the biggest pain point, getting claim requests approved for both cashless claims and claims reimbursement,” he says.

“To add to this, hospitalization, claim requests and all the other membership benefits are easily accessible in one single user-facing super health app.  The super health app also allows the members to tele consult with both general and specialized doctors, order medicines online and health check-ups all in the touch of a button,” he adds.

What They Do

The companies that sign on to Onsurity are provided with a web dashboard, where the company’s HR department and founders can control the addition and removal of employees in the plans themselves. They can also integrate it with their HRMS system and billing can also be downloaded from the dashboard.

Once added, users get access to the Onsurity health app. The app allows members to receive all the health benefits promised through the single app. Claims and reimbursement concierge support is available in the app too with lists of hospitals available to help the user choose the nearest one with cashless facilities to over 7500 network hospitals across the country.

This helps lower attrition and increase retention and performance so the company can reach new heights and milestones with a happier workforce

The app is also a one-stop shop for all things health and wellness from exclusive gym memberships to discounted doctor tele consultations, medicine orders online, and health check-ups. Everything health and wellness including mental health, wellness programs such as Salt therapy, Dash diet and even stand-up comedies are organised to give a 360 degree solution to its members.

“This helps lower attrition and increase retention and performance so the company can reach new heights and milestones with a happier workforce,” says Agarwal.

The startup uses technologies such as data mining, analytics, Machine Learning and AI led solutions in providing app-based claim assistance, doctors team assistance, app based wellness benefits, prior history of claims, and seamless processing of cashless and handholding for reimbursement claims.

“We also use state of the art digital dashboard and member facing app for a 100 % paperless process,” he adds.

Origin & Inspiration

Agarwal recounts his experience of witnessing the challenge faced by the segment in the working force that falls above the poverty line but still struggles to get benefits.

“The inspiration to start the company was to serve the underserved missing middle segment in India, who unlike those below the poverty line, do not have access to government sponsored health insurance schemes,” he recalls.

The inspiration to start the company was to serve the underserved missing middle segment in India, who unlike those below the poverty line, do not have access to government sponsored health insurance schemes

“In my previous experiences, we had also seen this challenge first hand and therefore, we decided to start Onsurity to help the SMEs of India get access to affordable and accessible healthcare benefits. We are also inspired by other FinTechs that are solving SME credit and payment related problems, and we wanted to solve the healthcare benefits problem for them,” he adds.

Onsurity considers itself a ‘COVID baby’ since it was incepted during the beginning of the pandemic.

“While our teams continue to work in hybrid model to ensure complete satisfaction from both employers and employees, we practice what we preach. The health and wellness of our team has been affected by the pandemic, but the team has always returned back and supported each other through the circumstances that everyone was dealing with. However, the cause of helping more people to get access to healthcare has driven us continuously through multiple waves of the virus and its after-effects,” he reminisces.

The Onsurity USP

Onsurity claims to be the first employee benefits membership platform to be able to offer employee healthcare for as low as INR 145 per person in a monthly model. The team at Onsurity has worked relentlessly to innovate and disrupt to create a tailored solution for the SMEs of India.

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“SMEs with an employee base of less than three have, in the past, struggled to retain working women because of their inability to provide holistic health and wellness benefits, built specially for them. MSME’s are also availing benefits that ensure an active lifestyle for their workforces, including gym memberships, walkathons, and yoga sessions,” says Agarwal.

Growth Story

Onsurity has onboarded 2500+ companies in the past one year and helped empower three lakh+ employees of SMEs, startups, and small businesses with comprehensive healthcare benefits.

“We aim to cover 10,000 SMEs and offer healthcare benefits to over 10 million SMEs by 2024,” Agarwal declares with confidence.

By providing healthcare solutions to MSMEs, we want to bring them at par with larger corporates, with no extra burden on their working capital

He also reveals the startup’s future plans.

“We plan to continue to innovate and democratise healthcare in India with the help of technology, and help businesses grow with happier, healthier employees. By providing healthcare solutions to MSMEs, we want to bring them at par with larger corporates, with no extra burden on their working capital,” he concludes.