Chairman for Fiji Care Insurance, Avinesh Raju says the COVID-19 pandemic has forced them to look at providing overseas medical treatment for clients in countries such as Malaysia, Thailand or Hong Kong because of challenges in sending patients to countries like New Zealand, Australia and India.
He says 60% of their revenue comes from medical insurance.
Raju has highlighted that about 15 patients were sent overseas for treatment last year to countries like New Zealand, Australia and Asian countries mainly India but this year, no one has been sent for overseas treatment because Australia is not accepting any patients and New Zealand is only accepting emergency cases.
He adds another reason they are looking at countries such as Malaysia, Thailand or Hong Kong is because of high cost of flights.
The Chairman says this has also forced them to look at other options such as telemedicine where there is software that is coming up as well as diagnostic tools and they are piloting this with their clients.
Raju adds that they do not want to reduce their costs at the expense of their future revenue and they want to capitalise on opportunities that arise from this crisis.
He has also highlighted that they are also working with the clients and allowing them flexibility in terms of their premium payments.
