Lloyd’s Backed Medical Insurance Product Reaches One Year Milestone

This article was first published by AP News on August 14, 2024.

For many, finding the right insurance for their people in Ukraine was a business pain point. Inherent Risks solved this with its Ukraine Response product. One year ago, global risk advisory firm, Inherent Risks launched a Lloyd’s and company market-backed medical evacuation and crisis response membership product under the brand of UkraineResponse.com enabling organisations to fulfil an essential part of their duty of care obligations for expatriate and in-country national staff. In 12-months, the product has been well-received and has to-date provided medical bill pay, medical evacuation, medical repatriation, and crisis cover for over 10,000 days in Ukraine for journalists, humanitarians, war crimes investigators, business executives and visiting dignitaries.

Ukraine Response comes embedded with a suite of essential travel risk management tools including a pre-travel safety brief, itinerary tracking and check-in, incident alerts, 24/7 medical and security advice and support.

Inherent Risk has been awarded contracts with the United States Department of State, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United States Congress, United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), European Commission, multinational organisations, and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Dan Kaine, Managing Partner of InherentRisks.com said: “In Ukraine most organisations don’t have long-term funding. Yet most insurers demand minimum premiums and long-term obligations. Ukraine Response includes war and terror cover, has no minimums, and can be purchased online 24/7 without a Broker, for as little as one day, even if you are already inside Ukraine.”

Inherent Risks has been providing comprehensive geopolitical and political risk advisory, risk intelligence, investigation, tracking and crisis response services in Ukraine since the February 2022, when Russia invaded the country. And over the past two and a half years has focussed on building robust networks across Ukraine of medical, security, intelligence and logistics specialists, as well as liaising regularly with various governments agencies. The firm has also been entrusted with providing risk management and security services for high-profile visits, including: Piers Morgan’s exclusive interview with President and First Lady Zelensky, Ben Fogle’s documentary in Chernobyl and Bono’s concert in Kyiv.

In 2022, Inherent Risks launched the UkraineRiskMap.com to solve an immediate problem for insurance brokers and underwriters, and is directly integrated with the Ukraine Response product. It was initially developed to quickly and easily identify the level of risks associated with locations across Ukraine, in a dynamic and asymmetric war zone, so that Lloyd’s insurance underwriters could determine if insurance cover was available (and at what price).

With over 44,000 visitors to the website to date, it is recognised as a trusted travel risk management and journey planning tool for brokers, underwriters, multinational corporations, international NGOs and foreign governments who access the platform multiple times per day to to conduct risk assessments and to access up-to-date and intelligence-led incident alerts.

Kaine added: “If we also take into account the insurance clients’ our firm provides services for in Ukraine, Inherent Risks has provided tracking and support for over 40,000 individual trips across Ukraine, including in the Orange and Red Zones, and all without one single claim. In a war-zone, to have a claims ratio of 0% on Accident & Health and Special Risks books that includes War and Terrorism cover is unheard of.”

Inherent Risks directly attribute this achievement to the proactive risk advisory that each individual client receives at quote stage (before a trip even starts), the close working relationship between Inherent Risks, their Broker networks and the Underwriters, the combined in-country support services that each policyholder has access to, and the policy wordings that were developed specifically for Ukraine to ensure they are fit for purpose. In Ukraine, Inherent Risks has conducted medical and crisis assistance and response on behalf of other emergency assistance and insurance claims providers. Traced tens of millions of dollars worth of insured assets across the country, including wind farms, grain silos, cargo ships, aviation assets and fine art. Conducted corruption and fraud investigations. Extracted 36 Ukrainian nationals from Sudan who were left stranded after a Government coup. And recently provided intelligence and support for the repatriation of Ukrainian citizens from Beirut, Lebanon amid a regional escalation of conflict.