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Speaking with Insurance Business, nib chief information officer Brendan Mills (pictured) noted: Weve focussed quite heavily over the last little while and continue to do so which is what were doing here with these roles on building stronger and deeper capabilities across the business around machine learning, data science, and the like.

Its a real focus on data and making sure that data is seen as a first-class citizen, and that we use data to be better able to predict and inform our members healthcare and well-being needs. So, thats the overarching driver. And, within the business, were also looking at where else we can use data engineering and machine learning capabilities across sales and marketing, retention, and claims processing.

In fact, nib is presently doing some work in the area of claims processing around using machine learning. Essentially, the capability being built group-wide is aimed at serving the insurer fairly well not only in being able to improve the member experience, but also in reducing nibs cost base in time.

While theres a lot of work ahead, the whole prospect surrounding the payer-to-partner transition is leaving the chief information officer stoked.

To really move closer to our members healthcare needs and to be able to apply data insights be it through traditional data engineering or through more contemporary methods around data science and machine learning is definitely the most exciting opportunity we have, I think, as a business, said Mills.

The challenge, though, is debunking peoples perceptions around the use of data.

The nib executive explained: Sometimes theres a view that with data we will increase someones premium or we will deny the cover or whatever. In our situation, because of the regulations we operate in, thats actually impossible to do. We cant charge someone a different premium or deny them cover; we have a mechanism called community rating, which prevents us from doing that.

What were really trying to do is make sure that as someones health partner, we really look at how we leverage the data to better serve them, stressed Mills, be that through using data to identify claims patterns that might ultimately allow us to offer them a health management programme or be that prediction of future episodes of care that they might need.

Theres no doubt that with the right harvesting and engineering of data, well be able to get closer and closer to our customers and better meet their needs, which I think is a pretty exciting proposition.

Whats crucial, he said, is getting that careful balance between people sharing data and people being more willing to give data in exchange for value.

As consumers, were quite often prepared to share our data in exchange for something, the chief information officer went on to illustrate. So, we share our data with Facebook in exchange for some sort of social media experience and connectivity with friends and family, and advertising or posting.

I think for us its about creating the right opportunities, the right products and services, the right platforms for people to then want to engage with us, to share their data with us, to then give them that value back.

Mills believes whats important is creating that right value exchange and being able to demonstrate, through real-world use cases, that the products and services are indeed valuable to the consumer.

He told Insurance Business: I think thats really where our opportunity and challenge lies, is that once we nail that and get that right, well have a far more open dialogue. Weve got some good programmes in place already, and weve started to work closely with a lot of our customers around health management programmes.

Weve set up a joint venture, in addition to the main part of the business, which is focussed on delivery of a lot of these clinical services. So, were well on the way, but we have a lot of work to do yet.

If you ask Mills, though, hell say that the work actually never stops.

I dont feel like you ever start and stop with these things, he asserted. The way I like to think about our investment in technology and business process reengineering, and the experiences were trying to create, is that its pretty much a continual evolution of what were offering.

I wouldnt like to put a timeline on it per se, because I just dont believe youre ever finished. As we get more and more feedback from our members and our customers, well adapt and pivot and align the experience to the feedback were getting along the way.

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nib chief information officer on pretty exciting proposition - Insurance Business AU