Digital health sector overexposed - survey

Beazley has published a report, Spotlight on digital health and wellness, highlighting attitudes to risk and insurance among digital health and wellness leaders in North America, Asia and Europe. According to 89% of those surveyed, the sector is perceived to be relatively high risk.

Over 350 executives from established telehealth and telemedicine companies to those at the forefront of newer sub-sectors including mobile-health, health software platforms and life science technology were polled.

The report reveals their views on the drivers of and barriers to growth, the risks that impact their businesses, and their insurance-buying habits and coverage gaps.

Unnecessarily exposed

A key theme to emerge from the report is that, despite broad optimism about the future and an influx of capital into the sector, many businesses are unnecessarily exposed to financial and reputational damage through underinsurance.

Of concern is the lack of specialist insurance in place to protect against the particular risks this sector faces. This includes the risk to physical health that can be caused by lost or false data, system failure or cyber breach leading to misdiagnosis, inappropriate or failed treatments.

Jennifer Schoenthal, global virtual care product leader at Beazley, said: “Digital health and wellness leaders have said they want our industry to improve how we communicate, share knowledge and collaborate, to deliver more appropriate coverage, more effectively. There is a huge opportunity for brokers and insurers to heed these messages. In particular, we need to work together to build holistic insurance solutions that focus more closely on the integrated risks these clients face to help them avoid risky gaps in their coverage.”

Highlights from the report include:

• Optimism is high, with nine in 10 businesses expecting to grow this year;
• While 85% are confident they know what insurance coverage they need, 70% are only covered for one or two of these key risks;
• Despite the risk of something going wrong with the technology, more than two thirds lack insurance coverage for bodily injury claims arising from system failure or cyber breach;
• 36% have struggled to find insurance that is right for their business;
• 33% don’t know what types of risk they need to be covered for, and
• More support from the insurance industry would be welcome – a third want more education on the risks they need covered.