OREANDA-NEWS. May 12, 2009. ROSNO experts have taken part in the Business Expert roundtable discussion dedicated to the quality of medical services. They offered practical ways to address the quality issue, such as the ranking of medical institutions and common approach to quality management in the voluntary medical insurance system. The roundtable discussion participants, representing 12 insurance companies, shared the opinion that addressing this issue will require joint efforts from all market players, reported the press-centre of ROSNO.

The importance of the quality of medical services in the VMI can hardly be overestimated: above all, it affects the cost of policy. Therefore, it is important for the insurance companies not only to monitor the quality of services rendered by medical institutions, but to manage the same, thus, improving efficiency of the VMI system. The possible arrangements for improving the quality of medical services were discussed by representatives of insurance companies during the roundtable discussion held on April 29. The discussion on the topic "Role of Medical Service Quality in Arranging VMI Process under Today’s Market Conditions" was organized by the company Business Expert. The event was attended by 30 representatives of 12 insurance companies.

Mr. Peter Yaverbaum, director of ROSNO’s Medical Service Arrangement and Quality Provision Centre, delivered a report on the topic "Quality Management Issues in Medical Institutions. Role of Insurance Company".

In his speech, he described the situation prevailing in the market for medical services. At present, the majority of corporate clients are serviced by the small quantity of popular medical institutions. This situation leads to the rapid inflation of prices for medical services exceeding the speed of social spending in the client companies.

Mr. Peter Yaverbaum has emphasized the typical VMI developments in these times of crisis. Firstly, the companies prefer to cut benefit packages and even involve the insured employees themselves to fund the same. Secondly, corporations are trying to find new, more economical ways to arrange medical aid — for example, by concluding direct contracts with medical institutions. Thirdly, the companies try to decrease the tariffs by excluding "unimportant", in their opinion, options from the insurance coverage. He especially underscored such aspects as the search for additional consumer value in VMI and advanced requirements to the quality of services.

According to Mr. P. Yaverbaum, in the present situation, all interested parties of the technological chain — insurance companies, medical institutions, insurants, and insured beneficiaries — must join their efforts to establish a uniform approach to the VMI quality management. Concluding his speech, Mr. P. Yaverbaum offered a methodology and a program for improving customer service quality, which could become a basis for the insurers’ cooperation.

In the second section of the roundtable discussion, the participants worked out the specific proposals. Ms. Tatyana Vinokhodova, head of ROSNO’s Medical Insurance Economics Expertise Division, offered that the experts of insurance companies unite to conduct joint expert action in medical institutions, develop standards for interaction between insurers and medical institutions, introduce a service register and update it on an annual basis, and create a uniform price schedule.

Also, all discussion participants shared the opinion that the insurance companies should join efforts to work out the rating of medical institutions. It was decided to launch the pilot project with the help of Business Expert. It is planned to create a uniform rating concept and develop a technical specification to commence implementation of the project. All companies participating in the roundtable discussion will prepare presentations of their respective concepts under the Medical Institutions’ Rating project by May 20’ 2009. These presentations will serve as a basis for the development of a uniform concept at the next roundtable discussion to be held by Business Expert.

BUSINESS EXPERT is the site for sharing the professional and business expertise. The major objective of this site is to use the discussion format to enable all parties of the technological chain to see the vertical slice of insurance business and to make it possible to go beyond narrow business tasks.