It was a frustrating experience I encountered when I tried to get an appointment for my COVID-19 vaccine shot last May. Although my local government unit (LGU) had set up a digital step-by-step procedure, which I had followed, the company that was supposed to help us manage our consultations and eventually schedule the vaccine was nowhere to be found, digitally.
The uncertainty of that situation made me make trips to my barangay to set up a schedule for my vaccine — I believed that the old face-to-face method was still the most reliable and the only way to go if I wanted to get a vaccine, lockdowns be damned.
Health insurance was something I had been thinking about during the last two years of the pandemic. With all the health scares that came our way, not having a health insurance plan that was responsive to our needs at the moment could be frightening and frustrating.
So it was with many questions about digital health insurance that I joined the Zoom roundtable to see how the health insurance companies would respond digitally to our health needs.
With the recent rebrand of AIA Philippines and its bancassurance subsidiary, BPI AIA, the two life insurance powerhouse companies are focused on pushing the boundaries to achieve their global capabilities, in alignment with the strategies and direction of AIA Group, their Hong Kong-based parent company. Part of this alignment is going full speed ahead with the use of technology, digital and analytics (TDA, for short) to streamline their processes, strengthen their operations, enable their people and provide relevant solutions to customers while continuously improving service delivery.
“With our recent rebrand to AIA Philippines and, consequently, BPI AIA, we continue to ramp up our internal transformation to be better positioned for the future as we embrace our global capabilities, aspiring to lead in the TDA space within the life insurance industry,” said Leo Tan, chief marketing officer of AIA Philippines.
AIA Philippines chief technology officer Noel Mendoza shared various TDA initiatives that the company has undertaken, emphasizing how the end user is at the center of the project design and development, to ensure ease of use and encourage adoption. This is especially true for projects that have the customers as the end users. “Our customers take the wheel. We will tailor, learn and evolve based on their wants and needs,” assured Mendoza.
As a life insurer with access to huge amounts of data, data and analytics and the use of cloud technology are all key areas that can help the business. “We will use the data we have for better insights and understanding. We will redesign our business models around the services they will need,” Mendoza said. “And finally, everything in the cloud — it’s where digital lives and comes alive.”
A practical platform
Among all the TDA projects mentioned, the recently launched MyAIA platform was showcased in a media briefing, with a walkthrough that highlighted its functionalities. MyAIA is an integrated platform where AIA Philippines customers can access the Total Health Solution ecosystem to help them live better, protect better and get better with just a few taps. Through it, they can view their policy details, make online policy payments, update contact information and disbursement options, and enjoy access through its medical services partners for telemedicine, medicine order and delivery, laboratory testing, symptom checker, and COVID-19 testing with more features coming soon.
Geegee Lopez, AIA Philippines chief operations officer, further explained, “MyAIA is our customers’ all-in-one touchpoint where they can manage their protection, continue to choose living healthy, and access health care should they find themselves under the weather or worse, as may sometimes happen. This platform is the first step to demonstrate our commitment to make protected healthy living easy.”
The future is here
The ongoing pandemic has presented a lot of challenges to AIA Philippines and BPI AIA, but both companies have been able to pivot efficiently and effectively. TDA, once just one of the company initiatives, suddenly had to be at front and center, fast-tracking the progress of technology and digitalization projects in the pipeline. Despite the challenges of working remotely, these projects quickly got off the ground, with a timely launch that was able to address the immediate needs of the business and its customers.
The discussions were interesting and the answers to the many questions I had were made.
But I could not help but look back at the many digital experiences I had during the pandemic — such as ordering food for delivery that never came even if it had been paid for; or the difficulty of a call out to the deliverer for a refund; or the calls I made to a bank for digital transactions that never pushed though; or unanswered calls to internet companies to check why connections were not working. These experiences were frustrating, to say the least.
I continued to listen as AIA assured they would continue expanding in the digital sphere, and yet also continue to offer the reassuring warmth of face-face consultations, when customers prefer it.
“As we rebranded to AIA Philippines early this year, we firmly embraced the importance of TDA as a key component underpinning the various pillars of our business strategy,” remarked Kelvin Ang, AIA Philippines chief executive officer. “As we go through transformation in our processes and the development of technology projects, TDA’s influence will not be limited to these, but will also necessitate a culture change, where we adapt to agile ways of working and continue to build a culture of innovation within AIA Philippines. These will all come together to help us fulfill our purpose of helping Filipinos live healthier, longer, better lives.”
There is still much that we need to know about the digital space and AIA Philippines with its TDA seems to be forging forward as it keeps a focus on what its customers need.
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For information, visit AIA Philippines’ Facebook page, email customerservice.ph@aia.com, or call 8528-2000.