While many industries have enjoyed the digital transformation opportunities during the past decades, the health insurance industry is still characterised by conservatism. Customers tend to engage with their health insurance provider when they need coverage only, and usually during challenging periods of physical or mental disorders.

Simultaneously, health insurance companies are under the same cost, optimisation, and customer loyalty pressure as other industries and the lack of positive interaction with the customers make it difficult to differentiate on other parameters than price and coverage satisfaction. Changes in customer behaviour means the customers have turned to Google for health related questions, robbing the insurance company an excellent opportunity to engage positively with their customers by offering relevant services of their emerging health services portfolio when there is a need. Helping customers to better recover or even prevent them from becoming sick is not only a better business case, but also leads to a much better relationship than just covering damages.

Albeit one of the oldest and most traditional private health insurance companies and operating in a reserved industry, HanseMerkur was at the forefront of technological development when they launched an app to scan and submit invoices for reimbursement as early as in 2011. It was therefore not surprising that they were immediately interested when we in 2019 started discussing how we could help them innovate further in their industry.