Many countries in Asia and the Pacific continue to face challenges when it comes to health care and related services such as health insurance. Drawing on the experiences of selected countries, this report focuses on on the opportunities and good practices of how technologies can be used and integrated into government-supported health insurance schemes.

One of the noteworthy findings of this report is that there is no “best” or “most appropriate” solution for a particular country when selecting digital products to support the health insurer and that country contexts may vary widely. This is due in part to the complexity of public health financing and the e-health landscape of a particular country. Thus, the potential use and/or transferability of a particular digital solution need to be assessed on an individual basis.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) requested a review to provide its developing member countries with an overview of how digital technology is being implemented and can support public health insurance operators in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This regional report on social health insurance technology was done through desk research alone using publicly available documentation as it was carried out at the height of the COVID-19 crisis.

The term “digital solution” in this report refers to all digital products and interventions that support a health insurance operator’s business process and solutions that give the beneficiary better access to health insurance services. The authors have deliberately chosen this term because a digital solution is not necessarily a software product. It can also be a database or a mobile app, for instance. The authors do not reflect on the necessary baseline infrastructure that needs to be in place in a country to use digital products (electricity, internet) but is aware of different country contexts in this respect.