BUSINESS ROZHOVOR

RBP: Modern Life

Insurance With an Extensive Heritage

RBP health insurance recently underwent large-scale modernisation, visually and functionally.

We spoke to RBP CEO Antonín Klimša about what the company can offer clients and

employers and what makes it unique.

Mr Klimša, first of all, could you give us

a little bit of an introduction to yourself?

I spent the vast majority of my career

working in the mining industry under

OKD, where I spent seventeen years.

Throughout this journey I worked in many

positions, including some of the highest.

The final two and a half years I spent at

the company were as part of the executive

board and as CEO. In 2018, I left OKD to

become CEO of the RBP health insurance

company.

Can you tell us something about RBP’s

history?

Not everyone realises this, but the origins

of the RBP date back to 1802. Back then,

mining accidents were exponentially more

common than they are now and convenient

tools for social and health security had yet

to exist. This meant that a miner’s family

was left without an income if he were to

get injured. As a means to mitigate this

risk, so-called ‘fraternal district treasuries’

(Revírní bratrské pokladny, in Czech, or

RBPs for short) were created. Miners

would contribute a part of their income

to the fund and, if they were to get injured

or sick, they would then receive financial

aid. The name for this social safety net was

devised as a compound of its purpose.

‘Fraternal’ referred to the brotherly bond

the miners shared in their employment.

Approved mining areas were divided into

districts and RBPs’ function as a treasury

is self-explanatory. After all, we saw how

treasuries work in the Czechoslovakian

comedy film U Pokladny Stál… with Vlasta

Burian. Fraternal treasuries have survived

feudalism, the Austria-Hungarian empire,

the First Republic, fascism and even

communism. That is the origin story behind

the modern RBP insurance company.

What innovations did you bring

to your clients at RBP?

I entered RBP with a plan to modernise

the company. My strategy consisted of three

main pillars: content updates, a face-lift of

the company’s brand and visual style, and

communication modernisation.

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By content, I mainly mean health programmes

for clients. Certain services have to be

provided by insurance companies by law.

In addition to that, however, we also offer

special health programmes. These include

projects aimed at increasing the availability

of healthcare, or, for example, telemedicine

projects where the vital signs (such as

blood pressure or blood sugar) of chronic

patients are measured remotely through

tools the patients are given and remote

access technologies. The data is then sent to

contracted doctors and the patients’ state of

health can be monitored long-term.

that, by 2030,

“weWewillexpect

be a fully digital

company.

”

In terms of marketing, we have focused

on the visualisation and modernisation of

RBP’s brand. We decided that it is time

for us to consider the company’s image

in the context of future generations. At

the same time, we also did not intend to

change the firm’s name and turn it into

something completely unrecognisable.

These two concerns gave rise to two

thoughts: shortening our name from Revírní

Bratrská Pokladna to RBP and updating

our graphic style. We had to deliberate

over the best methods to incorporate our

symbols into our logo. Eventually, however,

we managed to include all the important

motifs, including our code, 213.

Communication between clients and

insurance companies is most often done

through branch offices, call centres,

websites and mobile applications. We

analysed our current standing and created

a programme that will help us adapt

our offices for the future. Our goal is to

renovate and modernise our offices as

well as make them barrier-free. We were

also Czechia’s first insurance company

to offer a virtual office where clients can

hold video calls with operators. These

calls take place on a platform that is part

of our website. Virtual offices allow clients

to arrange a date and time, during which

our employees can take care of requests

the client would otherwise have to take

care of at a physical branch office.

The final part of our communication strategy

is an update to our mobile application and

website. Our new application, ‘my213’, has

significantly improved the speed of our

safe online communication with clients.

In addition to that, we have also launched

our new ‘barrier-free’ website, which is

programmed in a way that allows regular

as well as physically and visually impaired

clients to interface with it. We have added

features that allow for more comfortable

mouse movement for people with a limited

range of motion, and purblind users have

the option of increasing text size by up to

400%. The website has also been designed

in a way that allows fully blind clients to use

special readers that capture text and image

descriptions and read them outloud. These

readers give the client a full overview of the

site’s content and allow them to navigate to

their desired service using only a keyboard.

We had to follow and guarantee strict

international norms, such as the WCAG

(Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) in

the creation of this website. I believe that

we are currently Czechia’s only insurance

company with a barrier-free website.

Your insurance company’s registration

number, 213, is also tied to a number of

your projects, my213, magnet213, and

dia213, just to name a few.

Could you tell us more about them?

I already talked a little bit about our

application ‘my213’ as part of our new

communication strategy. Other than

being able to monitor an overview of their

doctor’s records, we now also gave our

clients the option to electronically ask for

contributions from the prevention fund

directly within the app. Before, clients

had to visit a physical office and provide

the required paperwork to do this; now it

can be done in five to ten minutes from

the comfort of their homes. After a year of

its existence, over 25% of our clients, that

is, over 100,000 people, started using our

app. We consider this to be a great success.