Health Insurance Practice Launched by Financial Services Analyst and Research Firm Aite Group

Health Insurance practice lby financial services analyst and research firm Aite Group; Kunal Pandya will head new practice focused on IT, regulatory and business issues affecting Health Insurance and Healthcare sectors.

Aite Group, LLC (Boston), a research and advisory firm focused on business, technology and regulatory issues and their impact on the financial services industry, is launching a Health Insurance practice, in addition to its established banking and securities industry practices. The new practice is intended to offer financial institutions, technology vendors and business process outsourcing providers unique insight into the health insurance and healthcare sectors. The practice will focus on providing an integrated, three-pronged analysis of business, IT, and regulatory issues affecting each area.

Research coverage within this practice will encompass the following topics:

Health insurance business, regulatory and technology trends.

Healthcare business, regulatory and technology trends.

Health insurance payments (e.g., payment provider models and patient-to-provider models).

Consumer-defined health care (CDH).

Individual insurance.

Electronic medical records.

Claim processing.

Health insurers' and healthcare providers' IT spending.

IT services and business process outsourcing in the health insurance and healthcare verticals.

Kunal Pandya, who joined Aite Group as a senior analyst in April 2009, is the lead analyst driving the development of the Health Insurance practice. Based in Chicago Pandya's background includes consulting experience in the consumer-defined healthcare, banking, health insurance and payments industries. Prior to joining Aite Group, he was a consultant with BearingPoint, where he designed and developed market entry strategies for regional banks, healthcare companies, and health plans entering greenfield CDH market segments.

"Recent additions of new product lines, processes and regulations affecting the U.S. health insurance and healthcare industry have led to major changes in the ways the industry operates," Pandya said in a press release. "With more regulatory changes expected, our primary objective will be to help financial institutions and vendors seize new opportunities in those sectors."

Gwenn Bzard, an Aite Group partner, added in a statement: "With the addition of the Health Insurance practice, Aite Group will leverage an already strong expertise in the payments business as well new expertise Aite Group is bringing on board to create this new practice."

Katherine Burger is Editorial Director of Bank Systems & Technology and Insurance & Technology, members of UBM TechWeb's InformationWeek Financial Services. She assumed leadership of Bank Systems & Technology in 2003 and of Insurance & Technology in 1991. In addition to ... View Full Bio