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Panoramic view on the North Campus © Jürgen Huhn​/​TU Dortmund
ELEVENTH FUTURE DIALOG

AI in Response to Cost Pressure in the Healthcare Sector

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In the photo, you can see a woman standing in front of an audience, holding cue cards and speaking. © Oliver Schaper​/​TU Dortmund
SIGNAL IDUNA Executive Board Member Daniela Rode spoke about the challenges facing private health insurance.
On 9 July, Daniela Rode, a member of the Executive Board at the SIGNAL IDUNA Group, was a guest at TU Dortmund University on the occasion of the 11th Future Dialog. Her presentation provided insights into the current challenges facing private health insurance and highlighted the conflict between rising spending pressure and the AI transformation currently underway in the sector.

The Future Dialog offers companies from the region the opportunity to illuminate current issues from their perspective and in the context of the university that are important for the future and to discuss with students, researchers and staff of TU Dortmund University. The event series is organized by the Center for Entrepreneurship & Transfer (CET) and is also part of the Ruhr Innovation Lab with which TU Dortmund University and Ruhr University Bochum are participating in the Excellence Strategy. The two universities are collaborating closely on topics that contribute to the development of a sustainable and resilient society.

One of the costliest healthcare systems in the world 

As a member of the Executive Board at the SIGNAL IDUNA Group, Daniela Rode heads the Health Insurance Division – the group’s largest business segment with around 625,000 policyholders with full insurance and 1.8 million with supplemental insurance. This makes SIGNAL IDUNA one of the fifth largest private health insurers in Germany. The company has close ties to its head office in Dortmund, where it employs around 2,620 staff. Daniela Rode began her presentation by outlining the current challenges facing the healthcare system. She reported that Germany has one of the costliest systems in the world and occupies first place in the European Union in terms of healthcare expenditure. At the same time, however, life expectancy in Germany is below the EU average. Added to this is the ever-increasing cost of healthcare. Rode said: “We are seeing significant ‘medical inflation’, which is placing a strain on the system’s financial capacity.” Another factor she mentioned was demographic change, which is leading to a shortage of skilled workers throughout the sector. To do justice to the growing demands of policyholders in the future as well, new and more efficient processes are required, she said.

Regarding policyholders’ changing expectations, Rode spoke of an “Amazonization of customer behavior”. This includes expectations such as same-day payments, greater transparency regarding processing status, explanations at eye level and maximum user-friendliness despite a complex regulatory framework. To meet these requirements and increase efficiency, the company is currently undergoing an extensive AI transformation. Already today, a large percentage of the millions of payment claims submitted each year are processed automatically. The aim is to increase this percentage in the future with the help of AI. “I nevertheless believe that personal contact will continue to be important, especially in the case of serious and chronic illnesses,” said Rode.

In the photo, you can see four people, including Prof. Manfred Bayer, standing behind the TU logo and smiling at the camera.
Speaker Daniela Rode (2nd from left) with (from left): CET Director Ronald Kriedel, President Prof. Manfred Bayer, and Chancellor Markus Neuhaus.

As part of its AI transformation, the SIGNAL IDUNA Group has entered a strategic partnership with Google. All staff, both back-office and in the field, can use “Co SI”, the company’s own AI, which is based on “Gemini Enterprise”. Staff in the Health Insurance Division have already developed their own AI agents with the help of the platform to assist with processing specific claims, for example.

Prevention is better than cure

Daniela Rode used the example of personalized medicine to illustrate the transformation taking place in the healthcare sector. In parallel with the advance of modern treatment methods, such as innovative cancer immunotherapies, and medical progress in general, treatment costs are also continuously rising. She said this underlines how important it is not only to provide state-of-the-art medical care but also to systematically encourage prevention. “As the healthcare partners of tomorrow, we must help our policyholders stay healthy.” Prevention is always cheaper than cure, she said, adding that AI will offer great potential here in the future for addressing people in a personalized way. Rode also used the Future Dialog to issue an appeal to policymakers: Unlike statutory health insurers, private insurers are currently not permitted to proactively inform their customers about preventive healthcare options. In Rode’s opinion, action to modernize the legal framework is urgently needed.

After her presentation, the audience took the opportunity to ask questions and engage in the discussion. Over snacks and drinks, there was then a further possibility to exchange thoughts and ideas.

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