Munich Re swoops for US health information exchange Clareto

Munich Re subsidiary  Munich Re Life US has signed a definitive agreement to acquire health information exchange Clareto to boost its life insurance offering in the US.

Clareto offers medical record retrieval services to the life insurance industry through its partnership with more than 25 health information exchanges (HIEs) and electronic health record (EHR) software vendors in the US.

Munich Re said the transaction is in line with its digital strategy to “transform” the life insurance underwriting process. Access to EHRs enable life insurers to replace traditional, manual and time-consuming methods of obtaining information regarding an applicant’s health during the insurance application process.

The addition of Clareto will also enhance Munich Re’s digital underwriting solutions alitheia and Allfinanz.

Marc Costantini (pictured), president and CEO of corporate development, strategy and digital solutions, Munich Re North America Life & Health, said: “With this acquisition, Munich Re will provide our life insurer clients with an entire set of new solutions to assist them in digitizing their underwriting processes – driving quicker decisions, delivering greater customer satisfaction and enabling new business growth.

“We look forward to leveraging our relationship with Clareto to deliver analytical insights from EHRs to enable and enhance the risk assessment processes of our life insurer clients.”

Dave Dorans, CEO of Clareto, added: “The union of Munich Re and Clareto is a natural fit. As the availability of EHR data grows, we see a significant opportunity to combine Munich Re's capital strength and risk expertise, and Clareto’s access to health data to provide the life insurance industry with a comprehensive all-in-one solution. We look forward to leveraging our collective capabilities to drive innovation and power progress in the modernization of life insurance underwriting.”

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