The Asia Health Insurance Summit 2017 was recently held in Beijing, bringing together companies engaged in the health insurance chain to discuss recent changes in the industry.

There are two emerging trends in the development of the health insurance industry in China.

One is that in-depth application of big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other technologies is drawing together enterprises in the industry more closely than ever. Future medical insurance will integrate a series of health services in a patient-centric health system covering the whole life industry chain.

As regards this factor, Sun Peijian, chairman of CPIC Allianz Health Insurance Co., Ltd. proposed to learn from developed countries such as the United States and Germany.

The commercial health insurance in the United States has long developed the characteristics of managed care. Commercial insurance institutions as the biggest sources of funds can dominate the distribution of medical resources and have the advantage of large client bases.

In Germany, insurance enterprises choose to directly invest or cooperate with upstream service enterprises such as hospitals, clinics, and nursing and pension institutions, achieving effective risk control and diversified profitability.

The second emerging trend is the development of a more health management-focused approach.

Compared with the traditional insurance sector, health insurance has not yet established a profit model, something the market players are still exploring. But for health insurance companies, to encourage the customers to implement effective health management seems a wise road to take.

According to Sun, managed care is the ultimate goal of commercial health insurance, and the deep integration of business insurance and the medical industry is a major trend in the development of China's commercial health insurance.

In recent years, with increasing awareness of public insurance and policy support the health insurance business has achieved rapid growth. It is expected that commercial health insurance premiums will reach 1.2 trillion yuan ($181 billion) in 2020, and will become the third pillar of the insurance industry joining property and life insurance.