Mumbai: Niva Bupa Health Insurance reported an 89.3% increase in Q4 FY26 IFRS net profit, at Rs 157.8 crore from Rs 83.4 crore a year earlier, while gross written premiums rose 30.4% to Rs 3,123.4 crore.This improvement was supported by lower operating costs, higher investment income, stronger individual health insurance premium growth and improved underwriting metrics.The insurance company said that the improvement in profitability reflects increased efficiency with an improvement in the proportion of combined insurance services. The ratio of combined insurance services (claims and expenses to total premiums) improved to 97.4% from 102% in the previous year. The claims settlement rate improved to 94.5% from 93.2% in the previous year.“The improvement in combined ratio was entirely driven by the decline in expense ratio to 270 basis points from 39.2% in FY25 to 36.5% in FY26,” said Vishwanath Mahindra, CFO, Niva Bupa Health Insurance. This was driven by economies of scale and investments in technology, analytics and artificial intelligence, he added.The company has automated large parts of its operations, with all new policies taken through digital channels such as apps and websites, and 32.1% of cashless claims are now automatically adjudicated.
Retail health remained the main driver of growth. Retail health gross written premiums rose 35% in FY26 to Rs 6,581.5 crore, while retail health market share expanded to 10.1% from 9.4% in FY25. In Q4FY26, retail health market share rose to 10.4% from 9% in the previous year.According to Mahindra, there has been a clear link between affordability and growth in health insurance, as evidenced by the significant rise in sales after the abolition of GST on health insurance.
According to him, although medical inflation was a reality, the trick was to design products to meet the needs of different segments.“The same product can be customized for affluent customers in metros and in smaller centers where the cost of treatment is lower. We can have some riders, some product features where we can make the same product more affordable by getting a discount, or by having coinsurance or limited network,” Mahindra said.For FY26, gross written premiums rose 27.4% to Rs 9,432.9 crore from Rs 7,406.7 crore in FY25, while annual profit after tax under IFRS rose 80.4% to Rs 366.1 crore from Rs 202.9 crore. The combined ratio improved by 160 basis points to 101.4%, while the return on average net worth rose to 10.7% from 7.4%.Investment income also supported earnings growth. Total investment income rose to Rs 613.1 lakh crore in FY26 from Rs 475.8 lakh crore in FY25, supported by growth in assets under management over the last few years.