People who have health insurance in Bangladesh could have their coverage extended to include Indian hospitals, with the arrival of an Indian company that would act as a broker of sorts, between the local insurance providers and healthcare providers in the neighbouring country.

Bangladeshi insurers will be able to offer their customers even advanced doctor appointments, coverage on treatment costs or even the expense of the entire trip, as well as expedited visa service by working with the insurance brokers.

‘Heritage Insurance Brokers (Pvt) Ltd’, which describes itself as a one-stop digital healthcare service, is looking to enter the Bangladeshi market with its gamut of healthcare services through a single platform, and promising the consumers a seamless and transparent experience.

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Part of the Bajoria Group of companies, HIBL is based out of Kolkata, West Bengal. According to company information in the Times of India/Economic Times database, "Heritage Insurance Brokers Private Limited is a Non-govt company, incorporated on 27 Aug, 1993. It's a private unlisted company and is classified as 'company limited by shares'."

Globally, it claims a presence across some 12 countries on its website, concentrated in South Asia and the Middle East, with further outposts in South Korea and a couple of the Caribbean islands.

The company organised a seminar on ‘Health insurance and its Benefits’ as an awareness-raising session for the Bangladeshi people and insurance companies on how insurance coverage could provide seamless healthcare service, at the Dhaka Club today (Saturday).

HIBL will work in Bangladesh through local agents, who will arrange all the treatment works including doctor appointment, medicine, diagnose disease, physiotherapy, hotel booking and visiting important tourist spots also. The company of course recognises the opportunity from Bangladesh becoming the source of the highest foreign tourist arrivals into India, a position it has held since 2018, according to the Indian tourism authority.

A large number of the arrivals are also for medical purposes. About 54% of all foreign medical visitors going to India for treatment are Bangladeshis, the Ministry of Tourism numbers revealed. The inflow of medical tourists from Bangladesh surged by 83% in three years since 2018, it said.

Basant Kumar Nayak, Principal of the Insurance Institute of India, took a session on health insurance and how it benefits common people and why it is important for people to be insured. The pretty basic extent of the seminar probably reflected the extremely immature state of the industry in Bangladesh, or the appreciation of the concept in the country still.

Ranendra Nath Ojha, head of business, Surite, an Indian e-commerce platform concentrating on the healthcare industry, talked about how seamless benefits are provided and healthcare services can help in better treatment at lower cost. Surite's services will be available for Bangladeshi users looking for seamless medical tourism services.

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At the seminar, Nasiruddin Ahmed Chowdhury, the founder of Green Delta Insurance, was felicitated by HIBL for his contribution to the Bangladesh insurance industry.

Apart from Nasiruddin Ahmed Choudhury, other insurance industry figureheads of Bangladesh including Wasiful Huq, GM of Sadharan Bima Corporation (SBC), Khawja Manger Nadeem, CEO, United Insurance, Abdul Hamid – CFO (chief financial officer) Prime Insurance, Golam Faruk Chowdhury, CFO of Northern General Insurance Co Ltd, and Mohammed Murshedul Islam, Executive officer of IDRA, attended the seminar.

Pratik D Negi, first secretary, High Commission of India, Dhaka was also present.