Max Bupa expands footprint with launch of a new branch in Chandigarh

Chandigarh is Max Bupa’s 16^th Branch and the 5^th Branch launched this year

Chandigarh, August 29, 2012: Max Bupa, a specialist health insurance company, today announced the opening of its Branch Office in Chandigarh, extending its network to 16 branch offices across India. Showcasing its strong growth trajectory in the Indian health insurance market, the company also celebrated the milestone of having insured more than 300000 customers in its third year of operations.

Max Bupa started its operations with offices in six cities in April 2010 and now has a strong presence in key cities Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ludhiana, Surat, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata and now Chandigarh with a quality hospital network of over 1300 hospitals and more than 9500 agents across the country. In Punjab and Chandigarh, Max Bupa has built a network of more than 90 quality hospitals and over 200 agents.

Announcing the opening of the new branch in Chandigarh, Sibaranjan Patnaik, Senior Vice President and Head – Agency Channel, Max Bupa said, “We opened our branch office in Ludhiana in our first year of operation and we received an enthusiastic response for our products. Currently, over five percent of our customer base is from Punjab and Chandigarh, being served through our network of more than 90 quality hospitals and over 200 agents in the region. With our branch office in Chandigarh we will be able to reach more customers in the region. We want to cover 1 million customers by 2015 and we are confident that Punjab and Chandigarh will play a key role in surpassing this milestone.”

A market study by Max Bupa has shown that people in Punjab and other parts of Northern India are looking for comprehensive health insurance products for their families that provide specific benefits like coverage for critical illness related expenses, maternity and day care procedures. Keeping this in mind, we have introduced our product portfolio designed to meet needs of individuals, families and extended families. This includes Max Bupa’s flagship product Heartbeat, and other products like Health Assurance, Health Companion and Employee First.

Max Bupa covers customers of all age groups – from newborns to senior citizens of any age. It also provides cover for expenses including in-patient treatment, pre- and post- hospitalization, maternity and childcare benefits. Max Bupa services it customers directly, without third party involvement, through an in-house team.

 “We want to become healthcare partners for our customers and help them live healthier and more successful lives. Our innovative products and services are built keeping in mind the needs of our customers and our have helped us in gaining the confidence of our customers. We will continue our endeavors towards raising the bar for health insurance in the country.” Sibaranjan further added.

Recently Max Bupa was recognised as Health Insurance Company of the Year and for Excellence in Growth at Indian Insurance Awards 2012 in recognition of its innovation in products, services and customer centricity and exceptional growth trajectory.

Key product and service features:

In addition to regular health insurance benefits such as in-patient treatment and hospital accommodation, medical expenses like doctor’s fees, diagnostics procedures, medicines and consumables, operation theatre charges among others, Max Bupa offers the following service benefits to its customers:

·       Directly service all customers  without any third party involvement

·       Cashless approvals within 4 hours

·       Network of over 1300 quality hospitals across the country

·       Assured renewability for life

·       Maternity & Child care benefits: The Family Floater and Family First option provide maternity benefits for up to two deliveries. All new born babies (where maternity is covered) are automatically covered from birth until next renewal of the plan. First year vaccinations for all new borns are also covered.

·       No age restriction for enrollment from newborns to senior citizens. There is no minimum or maximum age for enrollment.

·       Pre- and post-hospitalization medical expenses: Medical expenses incurred due to illness up to 30 days immediately before and 60 days immediately after a customer’s admission to a hospital.

·       Responsible enrollment based on customers’ healthcare needs

·       Comprehensive coverage ranging from Rs. 2 lacs to Rs. 50 lacs. All day care procedures covered

·       Cover for the extended family including spouse, parents, children, in-laws and siblings (covers upto 13 relationships) under Heartbeat Family First.

·       Proactive health relationship and benefits like Health check-up on renewal (as per Heartbeat Plan chosen), 24/7 health line and Health relationship loyalty programme.

·       High quality service through: Relationship managers, 24x7 customer service helpline to provide a range of services including pre-authorization, plan and payment related queries and claims information.About Max Bupa Health Insurance

Max Bupa Health Insurance is a 74:26 joint venture between Max India Limited, a multi-business corporate with expertise in life insurance and health care and Bupa, a leading international healthcare provider with 65 years of healthcare knowledge. Max Bupa brings together a combination of Bupa’s global health insurance expertise and customer service expertise with Max India’s understanding and experience of the Indian health and insurance sectors. Max Bupa offers quality health insurance services through a dedicated team of over 850 people and its network of offices across twelve cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Surat, Kochi and Kolkata. Max Bupa offers individual and family oriented health insurance policies for Indians across all age groups. Through its philosophy of “Your Health First” Max Bupa’s mission is to help customer’s live healthier and more successful lives.

Strong Network of over 1300 hospitals

Max Bupa Health Insurance has a direct working relationship with a network over 1200 top quality hospitals and healthcare providers and at the same time the company plans to extend its network of hospitals to other parts of the country. Max Bupa at present services customers directly without third party involvement, through an in-house team of relationship managers and also has a 24/7 health line for easy and friendly access to health advice. For more details about the company and a list of all our network hospitals please visit www.maxbupa.com.

About Max India (www.maxindia.com)

Max India Group is a multi-business corporate, driven by the spirit of enterprise and focused on people and service oriented businesses. The Company is headquartered in New Delhi, India. Max India is in the ‘Business of Life’ with its vision to be one of India’s most admired corporates for Service Excellence. It ‘Protects Life’ through its Life Insurance subsidiary Max New York Life; ‘Cares for Life’ through its Healthcare company, Max Healthcare, a joint venture between Max India and Life Healthcare, South Africa; ‘Enhances Life’ through its Health Insurance company, Max Bupa Health Insurance, a joint venture between Max India and Bupa Finance Plc., UK; and ‘Improves Life’ through its Clinical Research business, Max Neeman, a fully owned subsidiary of Max India. Max India has charted its next phase of growth, by recently entering the Seniors Living Business through its fully owned subsidiary, Antara. From its past, Max India continues its interest in manufacture of Speciality Products for the packaging industry. For the Financial Year 2012, Max India Group recorded a consolidated turnover of nearly Rs. 86 billion. The Group’s businesses have built commanding presence in their respective sector through a total customer base of nearly 5.1 million, over 500 offices spread across India and a people strength of 57,000 persons as on 31^st March 2012.

The flagship company Max India Limited is a widely held public ltd company and is listed on the BSE and the NSE. The company is led by Analjit Singh who holds 37% stake and has as its shareholders, some of world’s best Institutional Investors such as Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, IFC, First State and Temasek.

About Bupa: 65 years of Health and Care

Bupa’s purpose is to help people lead longer, healthier, happier lives. Established in 1947, it has over 11.3 million customers in more than 190 countries. Employing over 52,000 people, Bupa has operations around the world, principally in the UK, Australia, Spain, New Zealand and the USA, as well as Hong Kong, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, India, China and across Latin America. A leading international healthcare group, Bupa offers personal and company health insurance, runs care homes for older people and hospitals, and provides workplace health services, health assessments and chronic disease management services, including health coaching, and home healthcare. With no shareholders, Bupa invests its profits to provide more and better healthcare and is committed to making quality, patient-centred, affordable healthcare more accessible in the areas of wellness, chronic disease management and ageing.

Max Bupa is now Niva Bupa

For more information, please contact: