Detailed Briefing Document: iPMI Global International Health Insurance Payment Strategies 2025 Key Take Aways

In this iPMI Global in Focus Insurance Payments Article, we read the iPMI Global Round Table report, iPMI Global International Health Insurance Payment Strategies 2025.

Executive Summary

The International Private Medical Insurance (iPMI) market is undergoing a significant digital transformation, particularly in payment strategies. This shift is driven by evolving customer expectations for seamless, flexible, and transparent payment experiences, alongside insurers' needs to optimize operations, reduce costs, and expand global reach. Traditional payment methods are increasingly viewed as inefficient and out-of-sync with modern demands, leading to customer frustration, policy lapses, and increased administrative burdens for insurers.

Key themes emerging from the iPMI Global Round Table 2025 include the critical importance of customer-centric payment solutions, the need to navigate complex global regulations and FX risk, and the slow but accelerating pace of digitalization within the industry. Companies like Flywire are highlighted as strategic partners providing innovative, technology-driven solutions to address these challenges, offering automated billing, multi-currency options, and robust fraud prevention.

Main Themes and Most Important Ideas/Facts

The Critical Role of Payments in Customer Experience and Competitive Advantage

Payment as a "Moment of Delight": The report emphasizes that payments are often the most frequent, or even the only, touchpoint between policyholders and insurers. As such, they should be "a moment of delight," transforming how policyholders experience paying. "Payments aren't just transactions—they're your competitive edge."

Impact on Customer Retention and Acquisition: Poor payment experiences lead to customer churn. Matt Teumer (Flywire) states, "There are two major reasons global insurers lose customers: customer payments fail and policies lapse, and/or the insured seek other, less expensive options." Conversely, "Providing a way for payers to seamlessly make their payments in their preferred currency and method... presents a massive opportunity for insurers for both customer acquisition and retention."

Personalization and Simplification: Customers expect personalized and frictionless payment solutions. Andrew Jernigan (Insured Nomads) highlights, "Personalization is key. We are all serving an increasing tech savvy culture that expects the companies they select to be advanced as well." The goal is for payment to be "uneventful for the payer."

Major Pain Points for Insurers and Policyholders in Global Premium Collection

Lack of Localized Payment Options and Support: Insurers struggle to provide expert payment support in local languages and time zones. "Even the most advanced insurance carriers globally often still rely on manual PDF form fills and phone calls for payment via some distribution channels." This leads to "poor customer experience" and potential "delayed coverage."

Currency and FX Fees: Many insurers price policies in only a few currencies, forcing policyholders to incur foreign transaction and FX fees, "tack[ing] on as much as 6% to their final premium bills." This "unclear costs coupled with the lack of payment support can drive policyholders to switch to less expensive options."

Operational Complexities: Insurers face challenges dealing with "various currencies, increasing regional and global compliance issues, ever widening sanctions, cyber security issues, fraud, rapidly changing regional government regulations and a chaotic geopolitical environment" (Robin Ingle, Ingle International).

Lost Payments and Reconciliation Issues: Kieran Brown (SIP Medical Family Office) cites "Lost payments... and the anxiety caused in recovering funds" and "International Bank Charges Reconciliation and anomalies" as key customer pain points.

Outdated Processes Leading to Delays and Costs: Traditional manual payment methods are "time-consuming and inconvenient," leading to "delay in premium collection and may increase administrative costs for insurers." Andrew Jernigan (Insured Nomads) directly states, "our industry is falling behind when it comes to the user experience for payment and collection of premiums."

Improving the Customer Experience and Payment Processes

Seamless, Multi-currency, Multi-method Payments: The consensus is to offer diverse payment options in local currencies. "Providing access to multiple application payment systems, Flywire, MasterCard, Amex, VISA, WeChat, Union Pay, Alipay, PayPal, Apple Pay, Venmo, Banks, Google & Samsung Pay etc." (Robin Ingle, Ingle International).

Automated and Integrated Solutions: Solutions like Flywire's proprietary network automate billing and collections, plug into existing systems, and allow payments in over 140 currencies across 240 countries/territories. Matt Teumer (Flywire) states this "solves the inherent complexities in the IPMI space."

Instant Reimbursements and Digital Cards: Andrew Jernigan (Insured Nomads) highlights innovative solutions like "a branded Insured Nomads Mastercard to pay at the point of care," and "instantly add funds for claims payment at the rate of exchange on the date of payment for care" if reimbursement is needed.

Human Contact for Escalations: While digitalization is key, Kieran Brown (SIP Medical Family Office) stresses, "it is important for our insurer partners to keep at the core the basic principles of service... It is still so important for us to have that human contact" for issues that go wrong.

Managing Risk: Fraud, Compliance, and FX

Combatting Fraud: Robust processes for Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and Suspicious Activity Reports (SARS) are crucial. Partnering with providers using AI/ML-enabled fraud detection, trained on massive transaction volumes, is recommended (Matt Teumer, Flywire). Robin Ingle (Ingle International) notes concerns about "sanction busting or known fraudsters individuals, distributors or groups, attempting to buy policies with the intention to make claims, refunds."

Navigating Complex Regulations: The iPMI market deals with diverse laws and regulations globally. Key areas of awareness include:

Payment and Data Security: SOC 2 Type II certification, PCI DSS compliance (Flywire's CTO was an original architect of PCI).

Data Privacy: GDPR, HIPAA, PIPEDA.

Local Licensing and Currency Controls: Robin Ingle (Ingle International) highlights the tightening of "local licensing related to insurance and financial products" and "Currency controls and currency exchange issues... in many developing countries."

Sanctions: "Sanctioned countries, companies and people have quadrupled in the last ten years creating a compliance minefield" (Robin Ingle, Ingle International).

Addressing FX Risk: Larger insurers may hedge currency, but smaller companies struggle.

Solutions involve "plug and play service for smaller insurance companies" to "limit major downside currency fluctuation risk" (Robin Ingle, Ingle International).

Flywire functions as the "merchant of record," handling payment, compliance, refunds, and "access[ing] the most competitive rates from the banks." They offer "Dynamic Currency Conversion capabilities."

Kieran Brown (SIP Medical Family Office) challenges that "most intermediaries and insurers don’t manage FX risk too well and we all need help."

The Pace of Digitalization and Future Outlook

Slow but Steady Progress: The industry's digitalization "has moved very slow" (Andrew Jernigan, Insured Nomads), but "progress is ongoing slow, but steady" (Kieran Brown, SIP Medical Family Office). Robin Ingle (Ingle International) states, "The industry needs to do more."

New Entrants vs. Established Players: "It is probably much easier for new start-ups or the younger insurers to embrace digitization where it may take other providers years, if they ever get there!" (Kieran Brown, SIP Medical Family Office).

Future Vision: The future payment experience in global insurance will be one where "sending and receiving cross-border payments will be as simple as making payments domestically" (Matt Teumer, Flywire). It will feature "Personalization... prevalent so that payment is so simple and efficient that it takes very little effort and thought" (Andrew Jernigan, Insured Nomads), with "options for clients, making the process seamless and simple so they can buy using any system, currency and process that best suits them" (Robin Ingle, Ingle International). Enhanced data flow will ensure "a policy ID is attached to payment for easy processing and tracking" and "extended remittance information can 'travel with payments' to providers or hospitals."

Key Players and Solutions Mentioned

Flywire: A publicly traded global payments enablement and software company. Provides a proprietary global payments network, insurance-specific software, automated billing/collections, multi-currency support (140+ currencies across 240 countries/territories), robust security (SOC 2 Type II, PCI DSS), AI/ML fraud detection, and acts as the merchant of record for FX risk management.

Ingle International: A group of companies offering a full suite of services for insurers, including technology, application/product development, insurance services, healthcare, travel/medical assistance, and claims management. Focuses on simplifying the customer journey, integrating services, and dealing with complex compliance.

Insured Nomads: An insurance provider for travel and global health insurance utilizing advanced technology and processes. Offers efficient solutions for expats, digital nomads, and remote workers, including branded Mastercards for point-of-care payments and instant claims reimbursements via app.

SIP Medical Family Office: Provides international health insurance solutions and multi-lingual medical concierge service for private clients and groups. Focuses on client outcomes and insurer/intermediary efficiency.

PassportCard: Redefines health insurance with global coverage and a fast reimbursement process. Provides every insured member with a prepaid card funded by the insurer for direct payments at medical providers, eliminating out-of-pocket expenses.

UnitedHealthcare Global, Cigna Healthcare, Best Doctors Insurance, Trawick International, AXA Partners US, Global Excel, IMG, ALC Health: Other prominent global health insurance and assistance providers mentioned in the report, illustrating the diverse landscape of the iPMI market.

Conclusion

iPMI Global Analyst Christopher Knight concludes, “The iPMI market is at a pivotal point, driven by the imperative to embrace digital transformation in payment strategies. The shift from traditional, inconvenient methods to modern, customer-centric solutions is not merely about efficiency but about gaining a competitive edge, improving customer satisfaction, and ensuring business growth. Overcoming challenges related to regulatory complexities, FX risk, and fraud requires strategic partnerships with fintech innovators. The future of payments in global insurance promises a world where cross-border transactions are as simple as domestic ones, highly personalized, and seamlessly integrated, fostering greater trust and value for both insurers and policyholders.”