Editor's notebook: Carrier updates from Insurtech Connect

Travelers has expanded its partnership with the contractor network platform Westhill to include more lines of business and all 48 contiguous U.S. states. In addition to contractor selection, the platform also lets Travelers and its customers check on claim progress through insurer and insured dashboards.  "We're committed to providing an outstanding experience for our customers after they have a property claim," says Jim Wucherpfennig, VP of property claims for Travelers. "Their claim is not over after they receive a claim payment." Westhill's platform is now available to commercial clients in addition to personal property clients.

Liberty Specialty Markets, a division of Liberty Mutual, has partnered with REIN to launch an embedded insurance product for a new drone, Sony Electronics' Airpeak S1. This product is built on REIN's IX platform for embedded insurance. REIN and Liberty are long-time partners; in 2018 the companies co-launched DroneInsurance.com. Though this launch is also related specifically to a drone, REIN also powers other embedded insurance programs. "If embedded can unlock a moment that doesn't seem obvious [to buy insurance], it can really add value," says Jason Griswold, CEO and co-founder of REIN.

John Hancock says its decision to subsidize the GRAIL multi-cancer detection test for its Vitality customers is the culmination of trust built up over the course of the healthy-habits platform's existence. While customers of Vitality see health outcomes improve year over year, not all cancer risks can be mitigated that way. "Vitality has been doing a great job on the prevention side: exercise, diet, seeing your doctor," says Brooks Tingle, president and CEO of John Hancock Insurance. "But despite all those efforts, still 30% of our customers are going to get cancer. What becomes important then is early detection." Lindsay Hanson, VP and head of behavioral insurance for the carrier, says that the pilot program for the GRAIL offering is with 10,000 of the company's most recent Vitality sign-ups.