Jan 2017
Issue No.241
Independent Insurance Authority 8 December 2016 marked the first anniversary of the IIA. On 16 January 2017, the Legislative Council’s Panel 2 We sent the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau on Health Services discussed the Consultation Report on Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme (VHIS) and the Food and Health Bureau’s (FHB) proposed way forward. In essence, the latest VHIS will: ● include Standard Plan (meeting all 10 minimum requirements in a fixed template) and Flexi Plan (meeting / exceeding the minimum requirements without a fixed product template) ● allow insurers to sell / continue to sell non-VHIS compliant products, which, however, will not be eligible for tax incentive;
(FSTB) and the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) a list of action items relating to the setting up of the IIA which remain outstanding. They include the drafting of various by-laws, codes and guidelines, definition of regulated activities of salaried staff as well as operational issues relating to the transition from Self-regulatory Organisations to IIA.
Exchange with Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
● be launched through a guidance note stipulated by the future Independent Insurance Authority (IIA) and a set of practice guidelines issued by the FHB; ● resolve claims disputes through the Insurance Claims Complaints Bureau. Industry’s representatives have appeared on different media platforms to reaffirm our commitment to working with all stakeholders to launch a commercially sustainable health insurance scheme for the good of Hong Kong.
T
he Governing Committee invited Professor the Hon K C Chan and the Hon K P Chan for an informal exchange last week. We covered a range of subjects including transition to the new IIA, the proposed Holistic Consumer Protection Framework, Risk-based Capital, FinTech / InsurTech, VHIS, proposed license fee for MPF intermediaries, Hong Kong as Asia’s marine insurance hub and talent development for the insurance industry.
/ InsurTech According to the FHB, they will engage a consultant to work on the benefit levels, standard policy wordings and practice guidelines. They expect to complete the entire exercise and seek the support of the Legislative Council in offering tax incentive by early 2018. We will meet the FHB next month to iron out the implementation details, including the regulatory oversight, approval process, drafting of guidelines, setting of benefit levels, medical cost transparency, etc. We will keep you posted on the progress in due course.
At the meeting with the Hong Kong Applied Science and
Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) in mid-January 2017, we explored ways to apply their latest cyber security technology to support members’ business operations. More discussion will be conducted on the modus operandi and business model. We plan to arrange a briefing to bring Members up to speed on this and ascertain the needs of Members before proceeding further.