Karuna Trust, Karnataka - ZEF

Good and Bad Practices in MicroinsuranceKaruna Trust, IndiaThe implementation of the insurance activity is supervised and managed by the ProjectCoordinator, who holds a Master’s degree in Sociology. He is responsible for implementingall health and community development activities at Karuna; about 40% of his time isdedicated to the insurance project. The project coordinator ensures the flow of informationamong his field staff. In monthly meetings, he informs all involved staff about changes in theproduct, the progress made, discusses problems and sets operational targets. He is responsiblefor managing the revolving fund together with the office manager placed in T. Narsipuroffice (see below). The project coordinator ensures adherence to the rules; sometimes he isdirectly involved in ensuring that clients receive their full benefits.Next in the hierarchy are the Programme Coordinators. In T. Narsipur Taluk, threeprogramme coordinators are placed in the field office to implement Karuna’s activities. Withthe introduction of health insurance, a new coordinator was employed. He spends about 60%of his time on insurance while his two colleagues invest about half of their time. It is theirduty to:• Supervise the social workers and check the appropriateness of claims and measurestaken by the social workers. They also equip the social workers with an emergencybudget from the fund so they can respond immediately when a claim is submitted.• Control data entry. Most of the administrative operations are done by Karuna’s fieldoffices. After collecting the premium and issuing a receipt, the names of the clients areentered into an excel sheet formatted by NIC. Two to three assistants upload the data.Karuna keeps the receipts and sends the electronic file to NIC. A claims overview list isprepared for NIC, while the detailed documents remain with the Trust’s office. Theprogramme coordinators verify the accuracy of these lists. NIC agrees to these lists on abasis of trust, but reserves the right to verify them.• Maintain contact with divisional office of insurance. Once a week, a programmecoordinator visits NIC’s divisional office in Mysore. He submits a list of claims anddiscusses recent topics. Once a year, he also submits the list of clients enrolled.• Interface with SHGs. The programme coordinators communicate with the SHG throughthe SHG apex structure. Karuna’s SHGs are organized into Cluster DevelopmentAssociations (CDA), which again are organized into a Federation of CDAs. Theprogramme coordinators use their regular meetings with the CDAs and the Federation todiscuss insurance. This information can then trickle down to the SHG members.• Enrol members. Enrolling members is a high priority. Starting with the programmemanagers, everyone is involved in convincing people to join the scheme.• Reimburse clients. The public health care providers in the project area are the designatedfacilities. However, clients may use all public health providers in the state; this enablesthem to travel without losing insurance coverage. To claim their benefits in this case, theyneed to approach Karuna’s field office and present their documents to a programmecoordinator.• Coordinate with health authorities. The programme coordinators attend the monthlycoordination meetings with the health authorities. Problems with the implementation ofthe scheme are discussed as well as information exchanged.17