Swiss Health Insurance Apps Compared

Independent online comparison service moneyland.ch studied the mobile apps and online portals offered by the largest Swiss health insurance providers in 2019.

The study included 16 health insurance providers, each of which serve at least 40,000 compulsory health insurance policy holders. A number of these have made significant upgrades to their digital services over the past year. “But many health insurance companies are just beginning to digitize,” says moneyland.ch CEO Benjamin Manz.

Online customer portals compared

Perhaps surprisingly, there are major insurance providers like Agrisano and Aquilana which do not have online customer portals. The number is dwindling though, with ÖKK and Concordia having launched customer portals in 2019.

Insurers which received the highest ratings for the number of services offered through online portals are Sanitas (36 points), CSS (34 points), Atupri (33 points), Sanagate (33 points), EGK (31 points) and KPT (31 points). You can request a detailed comparison using the form at the foot of this report.

Health insurance apps compared

Helsana, which is one of Switzerland’s largest health insurance providers, now offers its policyholders an app with which they can manage many insurance tasks. Other major insurers like Agrisano, Aquilana, Assura and Concordia do not have mobile apps.

Insurers which received the highest ratings for the number of services offered through their mobile apps include Sanagate (52 points), CSS (51 points), Sanitas (50 points), Visana and Atupri (45 points).

Verdict by moneyland.ch expert Ralf Beyeler: The apps offered by the biggest health insurance providers now all include the most common services. But it is surprising that some insurers have left out practical, value-add features like virtual health insurance cards, digital vaccination booklets or biometric access. Another feature which is sadly absent is practical support for policyholders in determining whether desired treatments are covered by their health insurance. For the present, policyholders have to contend with the fine print in the terms and conditions of their policies.

Online access to documents

Online portals from Swiss health insurance providers let policyholders access and download documents like premium statements, benefit statements and insurance policies. Insurers which also have mobile apps make these documents available via their apps as well.

Online claim filing gaining popularity

One of the most useful functions of online portals and apps is online claim filing. Smartphones are ideally suited to photographing and submitting medical bills to health insurance providers. All of the studied health insurance providers which have mobile apps include this function. Most online portals also provide online claim filing and medical bill submission. There are a few key exceptions: Assura and Concordia require medical bills to be submitted by post.

The popularity of this feature among policyholders is interesting to track. Swica policyholders submitted 6% of total claims via the online portal or mobile app. KPT states that in 2018, its customers submitted 318,000 claims online (166,000 via its web portal and 152,000 by mobile app). That means 11.9% of total claims file with KPT were filed via its online portal and 10.9% were filed using its mobile app. Groupe Mutuel received 331,709 claims online in 2019, of which 149,043 were filed through its web portal and 182,666 were filed via its app. Sanitas received 300,000 claims via its app and 220,000 through its web portal in 2018. In total, 21% of claims by Sanitas policyholders were submitted online.

Use of digital services on the rise

Statistics provide useful insights into the slow but increasing adoption of digital services for health insurance. At CSS, 525,000 policyholders have used digital services, of which 365,000 have used the mobile app. At Sanitas, 270,000 policyholders have used digital services, and 195,000 of these have used the app. At KPT, 258,000 policyholders have used digital services, of which 85,000 have used the app. At Groupe Mutuel, 133,000 out of the total 186,000 policyholders have open accounts on the web portal.

At Swica, 90,000 policyholders have registered for online services and 90% of these use the app. At Atupri, 65,000 policyholders use the web portal and 22,000 use the app. One-third of all premium and benefit statements which Atupri sent to its policyholders in August were sent electronically. At EGK, 10,000 policyholders use the web portal.

Virtual health insurance cards and vaccination booklets

The apps from Atupri, CSS, EGK, Helsana, Sanagate, Sanitas, Sympany and Visana include virtual health insurance cards. Of the health insurance providers which have mobile apps, only Groupe Mutuel, KPT, Swica and ÖKK do not include digital health insurance cards. Digital vaccination booklets are much less widely offered. Only the Sanitas app currently includes this feature.  

Deductible and coinsurance

Many policyholders find it difficult to keep track of their outstanding annual deductible and coinsurance payments. That makes a clear overview of remaining deductibles and coinsurance one of the most useful features of health insurance online portals and apps. This standard feature is not included on Assura’s online portal.

Accident and hospital stay reporting

Only a few insurers let policyholders report accidents and hospital stays via their online portals. Only the web portals of Atupri, CSS, KPT and Sanagate include this feature. Atupri, CSS and KPT include this feature in their apps.

Digital customer support is limited

Many of the larger health insurance providers let customers submit messages on their online portals. Customer support via chat is much less common on web portals. Only Atupri, EGK, Groupe Mutuel and Sanitas provide direct communication via chat. Swica and Sympany have chat services on their websites, but not their online portals.

Chat-based support is also largely absent in health insurance apps. Only Atupri, CSS, EGK, Sanagate and Sanitas provide mobile support to customers via chat. Most health insurance providers do not include app-based calls to telemedicine centers for telemedicine policy holders. Only CSS, KPT, Sanagate, Swica and Visana include this feature.

Insurance coverage checks

All health insurance providers which have web portals let users access information about their insurance coverage. But very few include interactive insurance coverage checks. This feature lets policyholders enter specific treatments to find out whether or not those treatments are covered by their compulsory or supplementary health insurance policies. Only CSS, Sanagate and Sanitas include this feature.

Change of address

All health insurance companies with web portals let policyholders report address changes online. With the exception of Helsana and Sanitas, health insurers which offer mobile apps also include this feature in their apps. Changing deductible models, managed care models or accident insurance coverage via portal or app are much less common features.

Terminating insurance policies

Terminating health insurance policies via online portals or apps is not a common feature. “Obviously health insurance providers do their best to make terminating policies inconvenient,” says moneyland.ch expert Ralf Beyeler. Only one health insurance provider – KPT – gives its policyholders the option of terminating their insurance policies quickly and conveniently via the web portal or the app.

Biometric login

Most of the apps offered by health insurance providers can be logged into using fingerprint scanning like Touch ID. Only Helsana and Swica do not include this feature in their apps.

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