A Guide to Crafting the Perfect Health Insurance App
Health insurance (HI) software enables insurance companies to offer online services to their customers. This technology helps carriers track customer data, handle claims, and provide support quickly. It also allows customers to view policies, apply for benefits, submit claims, and contact HI providers' reps.
Developing a HI application comes with many advantages, such as:
automated business operations
more efficient risk management
reduced operational costs
more informed decisions
happier customers
If you are a health insurance company or a software provider and want to create a HI app, check out our post. It provides a detailed market overview, competitors analysis, and recommendations for custom HI app development.
Health insurance market overview
The health insurance market is growing rapidly. It is expected that the size of HI services will reach $7,25bn by 2025. The current rate of HI market growth is estimated to be more than 6% per year.
The healthcare insurance market has specific trends, which you should be aware of before starting to develop a HI app.
1. Affordable Care Act (ACA) entered into force in 2014, allowing more people to access health insurance. Increased demand for health insurance services increased supply. As a result, many new HI providers have appeared on the market.
2. People became more familiar with HI apps. They value the convenience of digital technologies and prefer online services rather than traditional services provided in the office of an insurance provider. According to Statista, the majority of health insurance providers have mobile apps, and the users are willingly using them.
3. HI services become more complicated and overwhelming. Different companies offer different insurance plans that are often unclear at first sight. Users take time to study the plans’ conditions, and mobile apps become a great help because they provide all the information in one place.
4. Health insurance becomes more expensive. According to the latest survey, the average cost of health insurance in the USA is $560 per month, which is 4% more than in the previous year.
5. People are more aware of different insurance programs and plans. Thanks to the Internet and global digitalization, users can reach whatever services they like and choose what best matches their needs.
Top health insurance software solutions (and their drawbacks)
Before launching a new software product, it is important to study the competitors, evaluate their strengths, and consider their weaknesses. Currently, there are a few top health insurance agency software solutions on the market. We provide a brief overview of each by considering their usability and available feature set.
myCigna
Cigna is a global insurance carrier operating in 30+ countries of the world. Their app lets you manage your health insurance plan, view your ID card, check on claims, and find in-network doctors and pharmacies.
The app is available on iOS and Android with 4.8 and 3.2 ratings on the respective platforms. The most frequent customer complaints are related to app crashes, long screen loading, and lack of biometric login.
UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare is a part of UnitedHealth Group, a US multinational company offering various healthcare products and insurance services. The UnitedHealthcare app lets you view your ID card, check your claim status, look up doctors, video chat with a doctor, estimate costs, and find the nearest urgent care center or pharmacy.
The app runs on iOS and Android and has high ratings on both platforms of 4.7 and 4.5 respectively. However, the latest reviews in the Play Market indicate that some app features don't work as expected. For example, the app does not send timely notifications, does not recognize images and documents, and crashes from time to time.
Aetna Health
Aetna is a well-established US healthcare company with over 200 years of history. It sells dental, disability, behavioral health, and other types of insurance plans on a long-term and short-term basis. The Aetna Health app lets you access your ID card, view and pay claims, find doctors and pharmacies, and estimate the cost of a procedure before you get it.
The Aetna Health app has iOS and Android versions and a 4.6 rating on both platforms. However, the users claim it fails to process payments, suggests unavailable doctors, and lacks face recognition during the login step.
Castlight Mobile
Castlight Health is a healthcare navigation company helping users get quality healthcare services at the best prices. The Castlight Mobile app provides users with personalized healthcare information. It includes a directory of doctors and hospitals, as well as cost comparisons for different healthcare services. Other key features include finding care, tracking past care, checking plan status, and using an e-Card.
Castlight Mobile meets the needs of iOS and Android users. It has a high, 4.7 rating on both platforms. Despite that, many users complain about the inability to log into the app due to a server error and poorly synchronized data across devices.
SimplyInsured
SimplyInsured is an online platform that offers personalized recommendations and comparisons for different healthcare plans, making it easy to find the right coverage for your needs. The target audience of SimplyInsured is small businesses. Its primary goal is to eliminate the fear of health insurance by providing comprehensive information about different healthcare programs.
SimplyInsured is a web-based software solution. Despite many positive reviews on various review platforms, some users complain about poor customer support and the outdated UI of the program.
How to develop a custom health insurance app
Custom software development requires a solid implementation plan. So, if you want to develop an efficient health insurance app, here are five steps to follow.
Choose your niche
This could be a specific type of health insurance (such as life insurance, dental insurance, or pet insurance), or it could be a more general app that caters to all types of health insurance.
Your niche will help you determine the specific features and functionality your app will need. For example, if you're focusing on life insurance, your app might need a claims processing system that can handle death claims. If you're creating a common health insurance software, you'll need features for policy management and customer relationship management (CRM).
Choose the right technology stack
This is where it's important to have a clear idea of what you want the app to do and how it should interact with users. You also need to decide how you will handle user data. Will you store it locally on the user's device or in the cloud? Each option has its benefits and risks, and each option determines the technology stack for your health insurance software.
For example, if you decide to design a SaaS platform so that users can enter it from any device through a web browser, you'll need to access reliable cloud-based services. When choosing among cloud technology providers, there are a few key considerations to keep in mind. For example, you'll want a scalable platform that can easily handle spikes in traffic. You'll also want to ensure the cloud provider has secure algorithms in place to process, store, and transmit user data. Finally, you'll need to examine the costs of the cloud-based services and choose the most efficient option from the price/quality perspective.
If you create on-premises software for insurers, you will need to hire a reliable hardware team to help you set up IT infrastructure. You'll also need to work closely with data security experts to ensure that sensitive information is protected from hacker attacks and malicious intruders. Finally, you'll need experienced DevOps and infrastructure engineers to keep your app running smoothly.
Design the security and authentication process
Medical software in general, and medical insurance software in particular, should meet high-security requirements established by legal authorities and industry trends. Therefore, before streamlining your insurance business with a specialized program or becoming a health insurance software vendor, you need to study HIPAA, GDPR, and other legal documents that regulate the safety of user data.
The key measures to take are as follows:
develop a comprehensive security policy with all employees strictly following it
ensure data protection at the administrative, physical, and technical levels
introduce a system of penalties for non-compliance with safety standards
On the technical side, you’ll need to make sure your team follows a secure software development life cycle and implements the following in your health insurance enrollment software:
multi factor authentication
role-based access control
regular backups
disaster recovery plan
activity logging
encryption of user data
secure connection (https)
session management (session expiration, session ID rotation, activity logging)
fraud detection
Implement full stack development for a custom health insurance app
You’ll need a full stack development team to help you create, launch, and maintain all the features of your custom insurance software. Such a team will build the frontend and backend of an application, create catchy brand-oriented design, and ensure smooth user experience.
When hiring a development team, you want to ensure they are experienced in programming languages like Java, Python, and C#. You also want full stack developers who understand server-side scripting (PHP, Ruby on Rails), authentication protocols like OAuth2, HTML/CSS/JavaScript for website design and frontend experience, and databases such as SQL depending on what data storage needs you have.
As for UI/UX designers, make sure that they focus on excellent usability and effortless interaction with your app. Also, consider following UI best practices and guidelines to design software that speaks your company brand.
Test, deploy, and optimize the custom health insurance app
You'll need to test the app for usability, compatibility, and stability. This means running extensive testing to make sure everything is working as it should, and that there are no bugs or glitches. Once that’s done, you'll need to deploy the app to your chosen platform web or mobile. If you develop a mobile app, you will need confirmation from Apple Store or Google Play before it becomes available to users.
After your health insurance software is live, it's important to monitor its performance and user feedback. This will help you identify any areas that need improvement and make the necessary changes. Regular updates and maintenance are also key to keeping the app running smoothly and keeping users happy.
Health insurance app development outsourcing: how to choose a technology partner
You need a reliable technology partner to help you implement your HI software project. Here the tips to find one:
1. Do your research. Understand what different companies offer and what their strengths and weaknesses are.
2. Ask for references. Talk to other companies that have worked with potential partners or read feedback from former clients on trusted platforms such as Clutch, Goodfirms, G2, etc.
3. Meet with the team. Book a video conference or arrange a personal meeting with the company representatives. Make sure you're comfortable with their work attitude and ensure they have the skills to do the job.
If you are interested in health insurance software development, Erbis can help. We have extensive experience in developing custom solutions for our clients, including insurance providers, healthcare organizations, and tech businesses.
If you have a project idea and want to discuss it with a technology expert, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
