Zhangshang Tangyi and China Taiping Insurance: A Pioneering Model of Chronic Disease Management Integrated with Commercial Health Insurance

Series Reports on the Summit Forum on Innovative Payment for Diabetes Education and Management

Integrating chronic disease management with commercial insurance is a critically important component of the future health insurance landscape. However, how to effectively combine chronic disease management with commercial insurance remains a significant challenge for relevant enterprises. With the development of internet healthcare, many internet healthcare companies are gradually playing an indispensable role in the field of chronic disease management. Therefore,BusinessInsurance companies and internet healthcare enterprises have begun to explore innovative models of cooperation.

From the perspective of chronic disease startups,Integrating insurance services to break away from the traditional model that prioritizes wealth management over protection not only expands service capabilities and attracts more users, but more importantly, provides policyholders with essential medical insurance coverage. This helps alleviate their financial burden and reduce healthcare costs, aligning with national health insurance policies while truly demonstrating the valuable role of internet-based platforms in chronic disease management.

From the perspective of commercial insurance companies,Collaborating with internet healthcare enterprises can, on one hand, facilitate the development of new insurance products to attract more policyholders, and on the other hand, enhance cost containment efforts while reducing the disease risk among insured individuals. Such partnerships also contribute to enhancing the social value of the insurer’s brand.

Meanwhile, the state has successively introduced a series of policies, signaling that collaboration between chronic disease management and commercial insurance will unleash significant business opportunities.



 

Among the various chronic diseases, diabetes management programs were the first to attempt collaboration with commercial insurance, and mature products have already been launched in the market. Taking Taiping Insurance’s two insurance products—Taiping Diabetes Complications Insurance and Tang Xiaobei, developed in partnership with Zhangshang Tangyi—as examples, VCBeat aims to analyze the models of collaboration between chronic disease management and commercial insurance.

 

On November 19, 2015, Tencent, ZhongAn Insurance, and DXY announced a strategic partnership, upon which ZhongAn Insurance launched the “Tang Xiaobei Plan” (insurance for diabetes complications). The three parties assumed clearly defined roles: Tencent served as the primary platform for service delivery, DXY leveraged its years of accumulated expertise to provide medical resource support, and ZhongAn Insurance provided coverage and incentive mechanisms.

2015At the end of the year, Zhangshang Tangyi partnered with China Taiping Insurance to launch an insurance product for diabetes complications—Taiping Diabetes Complications Insurance, also known as “Tui Tang Gu.” As an internet-based chronic disease management service platform, Zhangshang Tangyi serves as the exclusive provider of customized chronic disease management services for this insurance product, enabling unified management of China Taiping Insurance users. All insured individuals will have access to high-quality blood glucose management services provided by Zhangshang Tangyi, thereby optimizing self-management of blood glucose levels and reducing the incidence of complications.

In terms of collaboration, Taiping’s Diabetes Complications Insurance has chosen to integrate exclusively with the Zhangshang Tangyi (Pocket Sugar Doctor) diabetes management platform. Zhangshang Tangyi is a diabetes management platform with a comprehensive service system. Its multi-faceted, customized service framework is anchored by a mobile app and complemented by a WeChat service account, a call center, and offline clinics, forming a three-dimensional, end-to-end service ecosystem. This integrated approach delivers seamless, customized medical services to policyholders across both online and offline channels.

Furthermore, Zhangshang Tangyi boasts strong user engagement, helping insurance companies acquire targeted users. It is understood that this high level of activity is built upon Zhangshang Tangyi’s patient-centered medical solutions, which also enable insurers to better control costs and reduce the incidence of complications among policyholders.

As for why Palm Sugar Doctor chose to partner with Taiping Insurance, representatives from Palm Sugar Doctor cited four main reasons.

First,, Taiping Insurance demonstrates a high degree of innovation and is willing to undertake new initiatives in the health insurance sector.

Secondly,, despite Taiping Insurance maintaining a high degree of flexibility akin to that of a startup. The collaboration involved the integration of numerous sensitive data sets, presenting a high level of complexity; nevertheless, Taiping was able to achieve resource consolidation and facilitate product launch within a short timeframe.

Third, Taiping Insurance boasts a robust marketing team that can cover the national market through over 400,000 insurance agents and multiple channels. By partnering with Taiping Insurance, Palm Sugar Doctor can promote diabetes complication insurance more quickly and effectively.

Furthermore, Taiping Insurance has maintained a long-standing and robust partnership with the government, which will facilitate the future expansion of Palm Sugar Doctor into the medical insurance sector.

It is understood that both the Taiping Diabetes Complications Insurance and Tang Xiaobei areAlready suffering fromIIIndividuals with type 2 diabetes are designated as a specifically insured population, with claim benefits provided for the future occurrence of four severe diabetic complications. These fourSuch complications include post-stroke sequelae, end-stage renal disease, amputation, and bilateral blindness.

In terms of pricing,Taiping Diabetes Complications Insurance and Tang Xiaobei employ different pricing models. Tang Xiaobei adopts a floating sum-insured merit-penalty mechanism, whereas Taiping Diabetes Complications Insurance adjusts premiums based on factors such as the insured’s duration of diabetes (diabetes age) and chronological age. Consequently, premiums vary among individuals; for instance, longer disease duration may result in higher premiums, while shorter duration leads to lower premiums, all determined by actuarial probability algorithms.

It is understood that Taiping’s Diabetes Complications Insurance primarily provides coverage for the four most common complications associated with Type 2 diabetes. Patients who have had the disease for no more than 10 years and are between 30 and 65 years of age are eligible to enroll. The annual premium starts at RMB 188, with a maximum sum insured of RMB 150,000. Furthermore, the claims process for Taiping’s Diabetes Complications Insurance is straightforward and convenient; upon diagnosis, patients can receive a one-time lump-sum payment by simply submitting a diagnostic certificate issued by a hospital at Level II or above.

To help users better manage their blood glucose levels, Taiping Diabetes Insurance has specially launched “Palm Sugar Doctor Taiping Service Package”. By leveraging the proprietary scientific algorithms of the Palm Sugar Doctor big data platform, customized medical solutions are provided based on each patient’s specific conditions. Furthermore, by integrating the “five pillars” of diabetes management—medication, diet, exercise, blood glucose monitoring, and patient education—the platform actively guides patients’ lifestyle choices, thereby slowing disease progression and alleviating the burden of diabetes.

 

The Pocket Glucose Doctor Service Package Provided by Taiping Diabetes Complications Insurance

Profitability:Excluding the direct costs of insurance product sales, Zhangshang Tangyi will share the insurance profits with Taiping Insurance.

Regarding the collaboration between insurance companies and internet-based diabetes enterprises,The partnership encompasses both conventional business collaboration and in-depth content cooperation. Business collaboration involves mutual promotion, with the same diabetes insurance product featured on both parties’ insurance websites and respective mobile apps. This reciprocal promotional model is provided free of charge, with no advertising fees levied on either party. Additionally, during the Spring Festival, a promotional video for Taiping Diabetes Complications Insurance, jointly produced by Zhangshang Tangyi (Pocket Sugar Doctor) and Taiping Insurance, was launched on Oriental Cable Television. Further in-depth collaborations are also planned across new media and print media platforms.

  

Commercial Break:

To better explore models integrating commercial health insurance with chronic disease management for conditions such as diabetes, the “Summit on Innovative Payment Models in Diabetes Education and Management” will be held in Beijing on February 25, 2016.Guo Xiaohui, Director of the Department of Endocrinology and Deputy Director of the Department of Internal Medicine at Peking University First Hospital; Sun Zilin, Vice Dean of the School of Medicine at Southeast University and Director of the Diabetes Research Institute; Chen Wei, Chairman of the Beijing Diabetes Prevention and Control Association; Zhang Lin, Vice General Manager of Ping An Pension Insurance Co., Ltd.; Zhang Suyang, Partner at IDG Capital; Gu Xuefei, Associate Researcher at the Health Development Research Center of the National Health and Family Planning Commission and Deputy Director of the Medical Security Research Office; Chen Xiaomei, General Manager of Bayer Diabetes Care Asia-Pacific; Kuang Ming, CEO of Zhangshang Tangyi (Pocket Sugar Doctor); and Zhou Bing, Editor-in-Chief of Health News.Distinguished guests of significant stature attended the forum.

Registration for the conference is now open (free of charge). To register, please click the link.http://form.mikecrm.com/f.php?t=DJQa7G 。