AIA Korea, local subsidiary of pan-Asian life insurance giant AIA Group, will offer a digital health management service in South Korea as early as September, a move that could accelerate the launch of similar healthcare services by its fellow insurers despite ongoing controversies over possible violation of the country’s medical law.

According to AIA Korea, its new digital health management service - tentatively named AIA Vitality - will allow its users to personally manage their health via a smartphone app. When a service user downloads the Vitality application on a smartphone and enters body measurement and information including age, height and weight, and overall life cycle such as exercise intensity and eating habits, the app presents a metabolic age and proposes exercise methods. The user then can work out using the app and its proposed exercise methods.

Its users are also expected to get various rewards from AIA Korea for using the service. The company plans to provide the app users with various benefits, such as free beverage vouchers, when they reach a week’s exercise goal. It will also offer them discounts when they apply for its insurance products. The life insurance company is currently in the process of promoting partnership with a multiple number of merchants including food and beverage companies and sports brands to provide consumers with more benefits.

The latest AIA Vitality service targets not only AIA Korea customers but also non-AIA policy holders. The company is the first Seoul-based insurance company that offers a comprehensive healthcare service in the country where the current medical laws allow insurance companies to provide their customers with only limited healthcare services.

Currently, large insurers such as Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co. and Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance Co. offer healthcare services limited to providing counseling services through other agencies or making hospital booking. Industry observers keep an eye on whether AIA Korea’s new, broader healthcare service offering could pave the way for insurance firms’ aggressive inroads into the local healthcare service market.

By Park Joon-hyung

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]