Insurance companies continue to struggle to keep costs down in the face of increasing medical costs.

On the upside, patients certainly can expect better treatments nowadays as medical advances have made increasingly sophisticated medical intervention available, but the newest treatments are often the most expensive, and drugs are increasing in cost.

And, despite major innovations, especially in the field of biotechnology, healthcare management worldwide is plagued by lumbering administrative systems, long waiting lists and overworked, underpaid staff according to a recent report by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

“This is a failure that costs taxpayers and patients dearly,” says Robin Bew, editorial director of the EIU report.

International health insurers need to take the complexity of diverse systems and costs into account when managing their client’s needs. So how do they approach this?

Managing costs
 Established international health insurer Bupa International focuses particularly on fulfilling the diverse expectations of their expat customers.

“The nature of the healthcare system in a particular country—the medical culture—has an effect on what customers expect,” says David Grint, commercial director for Bupa International.

“We manage this diversity by working with large network of hospitals worldwide and pre-arranging fee schedules. In this way we can manage our costs well and deliver the overall value for money which our customers expect.”

One top recommendation in the Economist Intelligence Unit report was for healthcare providers to strategically integrate their services, so as to better suit the needs of patients. The same can be applied to international healthcare plans.

More flexibility
For instance, responding to market need, in July 2009, Bupa launched a product which reflects this approach and which is the most drastic change they have made to their standard product offering in the last 20 years according to Commercial Director Grint.

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