Life insurance digitizes the claim payment process

The seminar "Stories behind insurance contracts" was recently held at Tuoi Tre newspaper, coordinated by the Vietnam Insurance Association.

Digitize to speed up benefits payments

Mr. Ngo Trung Dung - Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Insurance Association said that in the first half of 2025, life insurance companies paid out more than VND 28,890 billion in benefits, showing their commitment to millions of Vietnamese families.

The market also recorded positive signals, with total life insurance premium revenue of the industry estimated at over VND72,090 billion, up 2.4% over the same period last year. Of which, new exploitation fees reached nearly VND13,050 billion, up nearly 9%, showing that coverage continues to expand in the community.

“We are at a special moment in the development journey of the industry,” said Mr. Dung. Since July 1, all businesses have restructured their products to comply with the new regulations. Recently, many companies have also accelerated the digitization of the entire compensation process, from application submission, approval to transfer... to help customers carry out all procedures right on their phones.

In some places, it takes less than 24 hours from receipt of complete documents to complete payment. Some businesses even apply artificial intelligence to shorten approval time to just a few hours.

According to Mr. Dung, the legal framework of the industry has become increasingly complete and strict, contributing to better protection of life insurance participants.

However, it is also necessary to frankly acknowledge that there are still problems related to people's understanding and experience of life insurance. "The problem is no longer a lack of regulations, but how to properly implement, standardize the profession and take advantage of technology to make the entire market transparent," Mr. Dung emphasized.

Therefore, the Vietnam Insurance Association is working closely with businesses to improve the professional ethics of consultants, while tightening sales activities to protect consumer rights.

Get access to cutting-edge treatments with life insurance

At the program, Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu (District 3, Ho Chi Minh City) shared that he initially strongly objected when he heard his son express his intention to pursue a career as a life insurance agent: "If he pursues insurance, I will disown him."

However, after being convinced by his son, he agreed to pursue a career as an insurance consultant and signed a contract with a health care card for himself. Suddenly, less than a year later, Mr. Hieu himself discovered he had kidney cancer and had to be hospitalized for treatment.

At first, Mr. Hieu was treated with the targeted drug Pazopanib, costing more than 30 million VND/month. Health insurance covered half of it, and life insurance paid the rest. However, due to serious side effects such as high blood pressure, high liver enzymes, gray hair, and skin rashes, the doctor asked him to stop taking the drug.

He then switched to Keytruda immunotherapy at a cost of VND65 million/3 weeks. The life insurance company quickly approved payment after only seven days, renewed his health card and continued to support treatment costs.

Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Tuan - lecturer of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine said that health insurance brings many benefits and is universal, reducing the burden on social security. However, there are many cases that need the cooperation of life insurance.

In the context of escalating medical costs, many expensive drugs, along with modern intervention techniques, life insurance is a lifesaver to help many families have more financial capacity, pursue the treatment process without falling deeper into debt.