Münchener Verein and Ecaria have joined forces to help family caregivers by informing and educating them on the care coverage gap and long-term care insurance products.
Elderly care is a hot topic when it comes to digital health solutions in the insurance sector. During InsurTech Hub Munich’s partner surveys in 2022, in preparation of the second edition Digital Health Innovation Programme, ITHM partners and members identified elderly care as one of the “Top 5 Focus Areas” in which they were looking for healthcare solutions.
Longer life expectancy and the demographic shift have led to new challenges for the insurance industry in terms of providing the elderly and their caregivers with adequate healthcare and support. In addition, when looking specifically at the German market, long-term care insurance is facing issues not only regarding sufficient and accessible care but also a lack of information and knowledge. The long-term care gap in Germany – i.e. the fact that long-term care is only partially covered by statutory health insurance – has led to a compelling need to educate the insured on this coverage gap.
Ecaria, a Berlin-based startup founded in 2020, is a care-companion platform created to help caregivers organize and conduct home care as best as possible by giving them exactly this: the knowledge they need to facilitate and speed up processes. The special focus on caregivers is what sparked Münchener Verein’s interest and made Ecaria the perfect fit for a private insurer who wanted to address and cover both the existing knowledge and insurance gap.
“We quickly realized during the business development talks that Ecaria was addressing a suitable topic for us, that of family caregivers – comments Paul Wuttke, Senior Project Manager and Business Analyst Digital Transformation at Münchener Verein – but there also was a mutual understanding on how to collaborate, open exchange on the possible mutual benefits and a planned approach which considered the timelines of two different realities such as an insurance company and a rising start-up. All key factors to start a successful collaboration”.
But how are they planning to bridge this knowledge gap for caregivers exactly?
“With Münchener Verein – explains Julia Backhaus, Co-founder of Ecaria – we are combining forces to inform and educate people on the financial aspects at an early stage, and to put them in the driver’s seat of building financial security in old age. We at Ecaria have integrated sources, tutorials, and other micro-learning components, while the experts from Münchener Verein are available to help with questions about individual insurance situations and what is needed to optimize it”.
How did ITHM facilitate your collaboration?
“The H+ Programme helped us in many ways. Not only through access to insurances and other players in the market, but with a multi-sided approach that helps startups dive into this world of complexity and find their place in it as a start-up. For example, we learned that it is highly relevant for insurances to have partners on their side to transform from pure payers to real companions for their clients and to enhance that relationship by using excellent digital solutions”.
“The InsurTech Hub Munich team introduced us to the founders of Ecaria during the H+ Programme in 2022, in which Münchener Verein participated as a private insurance company. The team provided us with continuous coordinative support both during business development weeks and throughout the cooperation process, facilitating the collaboration”.
Text: Gaia Ravazzi