Chennai, May 1 (IANS): The Bengaluru based health insurance claims processor Vidal Health Insurance TPA Pvt Ltd hopes to close this fiscal with a revenue of about Rs 200 crore after the merger of Vipul MedCorp Insurance TPA, said a senior official.

He also said the merger of Vipul MedCorp with Vidal Health is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Speaking to IANS Shankar Bali, Joint Managing Director, Vidal Health said the merger process has begun and by the end of this year it will be completed.

Vidal Health recently announced the acquisition of Vipul MedCorp.

According to Bali, the third party administrator (TPA) or the health insurance claims processing business is low margin business and manpower intensive and consolidation is a dire need for the industry.

Bali said the ability of the industry players to invest back in the business, deployment of technologies like artificial intelligence is less than what should have happened during the last 10 years.

He said the TPAs get about 5.4 per cent of the health insurance premium paid by an individual policyholder whereas in the case of group insurance policy the rate depends on the group size.

Many private non-life insurers process their health claims in-house whereas the four government owned insurers get it outsourced through TPAs including their own arm Health Insurance TPA of India Ltd.

On the acquisition of Vipul MedCorp, Bali said there was an opportunity and it has worked well.

He said Vipul MedCorp is strong in North India and in the retail health care segment while Vidal Health is strong in South and in the group health insurance business.

Queried about the policyholders compliant of large deductions in their claimed amount in the case of Covid-19 patients, Bali said like any other claim, the Covid-19 claims are being dealt with as per the policy conditions.

On the impact of Covid-19 lockdown and others on the company's operations, Bali said employees are working from home and managing issues like slow net connectivity and others.