SAN FRANCISCO — The Affordable Care Act, aka health care reform, aka Obamacare, is spurring a massive creation of new business opportunities.

So says Bryan Sivak, the chief technical officer and entrepreneur-in-residence at the Department of Health and Human Services, the cabinet-level agency that regulates the $2.8 trillion U.S. health care market. Sivak joined VentureBeat’s HealthBeat conference today via a video conference (see photo above).

Just one of the areas that’s becoming fertile ground for entrepreneurial innovation: the health insurance exchanges mandated by the law.

These exchanges bring a level of transparency and openness to the insurance market that hasn’t been easy to find until now, Sivak said. The new exchanges will be large, consumer-facing marketplaces, and the insurance industry hasn’t been exactly nimble about embracing the latest consumer tech trends — so there will be lots of opportunities for startups to bridge the gap.

They’ll increase competition, because people will be able to see and compare insurance plans more easily. Now, any qualified, licensed insurer will have access to a market of potential customers via the exchanges.

Also, he said, the act will bring 30 million to 50 million more people into the ranks of the insured, creating a new pool of customers to market to. And there will be lots of data.

“You have no idea what’s possible, and you have no idea what people are going to come up with, so that’s what I’m really looking forward to,” Sivak said.

Apart from the ACA, Sivak also said government has an important role to play in facilitating health care innovation.

Government can help spur technology in three ways, he said:

• Facilitation: ”Governments at all levels are interested in seeing citizens do great things.” At the federal, state, and local levels, he said, there’s a lot of interest in helping people create new ventures, improve existing health care systems, or create new systems.
• Convening: “We’re really, really good at getting people together,” Sivak said. So if a big problem needs tackling, governments are well-positioned to gather people to talk about it.
• Incentivizing: Governments can be very effective at spurring change through relatively small incentives or through mandates. For example, he said, the adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) stagnated until it was mandated by the Affordable Care Act in 2012.

“Just think about that: A small government intervention has caused EMR adoption to go from under 15 percent to over 70 percent,” Sivak said.

What’s more, government sits on top of a lot of data. Sivak estimates that HHS has about 1,000 data sets, 400 of which have been catalogued on the agency’s HealthData.gov website. Some of the datasets aren’t free, though HHS is working to bring the costs down. So there’s a long way to go still.

Sivak, a former entrepreneur who cut his teeth in San Francisco during the dot-com days, says his attitude toward government’s role is a new perspective for him.

“The only time I interacted with government was when I needed to file my incorporation paperwork with the State of California,” he said of his experience in the 1990s — not atypical of many tech entrepreneurs.

But if he’s right, techies — at least those who want to do business in the health care field — would do well to pay a lot more attention to what’s going on in government.

Photo credit: Michael O’Donnell/VentureBeat

Tomer Shoval is co-founder and CEO of medical bill tracking service Simplee. Shoval will be speaking at HealthBeat event next week, which deals with how IT is driving change in health care.

Mobile billing and payments have seen extraordinary growth in almost every consumer industry, from utility bills to lattes. However, the healthcare industry has been slow to adopt mobile billing and payments. A number of factors are converging to make 2013 a year of rapid growth in mobile payment options for medical providers and patients.

Healthcare is a slow-moving, highly-regulated industry that historically has been resistant to adopting non-care related changes. As pressures on hospital and physician revenue mount, medical providers are increasingly forced to take on new billing options. Here are three reasons why mobile medical billing and payments will expand in 2013:

1) Multiple Payment Scenarios and Options

There are two general types of mobile payment options: point-of-sale purchases and bill pay. To date, much of the mobile payments buzz has centered around quick and easy point-of-sale transactions. The partnership of Starbucks and Square to make coffee purchases faster and easier and the recent expansion of the PayPal mobile wallet to thousands of retail stores are perfect examples of this application.

Mobile bill pay has also been quietly gaining momentum. According to Fiserv, mobile bill pay has grown 41% among smartphone users since 2011. Further, a Western Union survey found that 39% of respondents intend to pay more bills online this year and 12% will pay more bills with their smartphone.

The good news for healthcare is that patients frequently make both types of payments – either at the doctor’s office as a point-of-sale purchase or through a cost share with insurance. There is a unique opportunity for medical providers to shorten the payments cycle, increase revenue, and decrease collection costs across the entire billing spectrum, all while providing patients with a much greater degree of control and convenience.

2) Healthcare Bills are Complex

Anyone who has visited a doctor or filled a prescription can attest to the complicated nature of medical bills and insurers’ explanation of benefits. In the past, this has translated into lengthy and often overlapping paper billing statements from multiple sources. It can be difficult to determine how much a patient owes, to whom, and by when.

By the very nature of the platform, online and mobile bill pay has the power to clearly and concisely deliver a simplified medical bill. As more providers begin to explore new billing practices, patients are eager to adopt them. According to a 2012 Billing Household Survey, 76% of customers who use a smartphone to manage utility, phone, and other household bills would also like to pay their medical bills this way. Patients do not want to spread statements out on the kitchen table and use a calculator and checkbook to pay these bills. They expect a better way. As soon as providers begin to offer these options, that demand will only intensify.

3) Providers and Patients are Aligned

By taking a cue from other industries, mobile medical billing and payments is likely to benefit both medical providers and their patients.

The Biller Mobile Bill Pay Benchmark Study by Fiserv found that service providers use mobile billing and payments to improve customer service and reduce costs, and patients use it to save time and improve convenience.

For the healthcare industry, the benefits of mobile billing and payments are even more immediate. Provider revenues are being squeezed on all sides, and patient payments are a rare area of potential growth. Mobile billing and payments has the potential to give patients clarity and convenience when and where they need it most and to enable medical providers to eliminate overhead, shorten time to payment, and increase patient engagement.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Should good drivers receive cheaper insurance? Providers like Progressive think so and are rolling out new “pay how you drive” insurance options.

To take advantage of this trend, StreetOwl is launching its smartphone app to help drivers find the most affordable insurance. The San Francisco-based startup initially focused on driver safety for teens, but has shifted its product focus. Founder Jason Hovey claims the company is the first to create the technology for drivers to comparison shop “pay how you drive” insurance.

It’s a more complex solution than simply laying out the various options. Some insurance providers might think you’re a great driver for how you consistently you drive under the speed limit — which may not impress others. But once you download the free app and let it monitor you while you’re driving, StreetOwl can match you with the provider that is most likely to give you the lowest rate.

Another benefit is that the app can recommend ways for you can become a safer driver.

“Anyone can use our product for free and learn to drive better,” said Hovey in an interview. “But the most immediate incentive is helping people get a big discount on insurance.”

The alternative is to individually sign up to each insurance provider, drive for one to three months, and receive a quote. It would take over a year to comparison shop this way, but with StreetOwl, you’ll only need to complete a single driving test.

Hovey said the company is betting that in five years, more than half of insurance policies will be based on driving ability. Hovey also predicts that hardware is on its way out and will be replaced by smartphone apps like StreetOwl.

Sept. 9 - 10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Does your company rely on mobile workers? If it does, the worker likely is a “+1,” an employee who carries both a mobile device and a tablet And those mobile workers who need to access data may be using a consumer cloud like Dropbox, SkyDrive or Google Drive to get that access.

This mass migration of data to the consumer cloud, however, all happening without much IT oversight and control, may give rise to potential exposure to unknown security risks to the company. If you follow the industry, you’ve seen that there have been data breaches at consumer cloud providers.

The cloud also has given rise to lawsuits. For example, Dropbox was sued in federal court in California in a class action suit regarding alleged data security issues; the case was dropped later that year. And LinkedIn, a cloud provider of a different nature, was sued in federal court in a proposed class action arising out of an alleged hack, although it recently won a motion to dismiss the action.

Sony’s PlayStation Network, another form of the cloud, was hacked, allegedly facilitated by another cloud provider, and Sony was sued both by consumers and some of its insurance companies. Sony’s general liability insurance company, Zurich American Insurance Company, then added insult to injury by suing Sony rather than providing coverage. Zurich has asked the court to rule that other Sony insurance policies would cover the claim before Zurich’s policy, in addition to asking for rulings that Sony’s general liability insurance policies do not provide coverage for the data breach claims.

So what kind of risk do companies face when their mobile workers are using the cloud, and will their insurance cover cloud-based risks? Let’s take a look.

What are the risks?

There are two general categories of risks and potential liabilities for users of the cloud: first-party risks and third-party risks. Generally speaking, first-party risks include lost income or business because of a cloud outage, the inability to access the cloud, or lost data. Third-party risks include the cloud user’s potential liability to customers or to various governmental or regulatory entities. These potential risks include lawsuits or claims from third parties resulting from a data breach or other cyber event. Other risks, which may be seen as both first- and third-party costs, include the costs to provide notifications after data breaches (if those costs are not the responsibility of the cloud provider), payment card industry (PCI) liabilities, and other data breach- and privacy-based costs.

Will your insurance cover the risks?

When considering a move to the cloud, give thought to one of your company’s most important assets – its insurance policies. The importance of time spent with your broker and outside insurance coverage counsel to discuss and understand the potential scope of coverage under your company’s insurance policies as it relates to cyber and privacy risks is amplified when thinking about moving to the cloud.

The best place to start this analysis is, first, by reviewing your company’s cyberinsurance policy. (Haven’t bought a cyber insurance policy yet? Click here for some helpful tips for when your company does consider purchasing that type of insurance policy.)

Next, take a close look at your company’s entire portfolio of insurance policies. Coverage may be available under traditional forms of insurance such as commercial crime, first-party property, and commercial general liability (CGL) policies. Regarding commercial crime policies in particular, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit found coverage for a data breach (though not necessarily related to the use of the cloud) under a computer fraud endorsement to a crime insurance policy for certain costs relating to a data breach. Also consider whether business interruption or contingent business interruption coverage within a first-party property insurance policy would provide coverage for a cloud-based interruption.

Companies should not assume that their insurance companies will agree that coverage for cyber risks related to the cloud is provided by so-called traditional forms of insurance. To protect against such risks, companies may look to cyber insurance policies that are marketed expressly as providing coverage for cyber-related loss.

What should companies look for when considering insurance for cloud-related risks?

Cyber insurance comes in many forms and variations. This growing insurance marketplace has led to a variation in forms and coverages being offered by insurance companies.

1. Look at whether cloud computing is covered specifically, and, if not, how broadly the coverage is written.

In the past, it was rare to see cloud computing in a cyber insurance policy, but now certain insurance carriers have started using that term in their forms. If the insurance policy specifically references the cloud, determine whether any special terms and conditions apply. Consider whether there are specific exclusions or coverage limitations specific to cloud-based risks.

For those policies that do not use the term “cloud” or “cloud computing” specifically, pay close attention to terms such as “network” or “computer system,” as those terms may affect directly the scope of coverage for cloud-based risks. Also, pay attention to limitations on the use of outsourcing, vendors, or other third-party service providers. Those terms may be written in a way that could encompass the outsourcing of hosting or support. If so, the insured should have a strong argument that cloud services are covered.

2. Determine whether sublimits and deductibles or retentions apply to cloud-related risks.

Modern insurance policies typically have limits of coverage that apply, capping the total amount of insurance that is available under the policy. Some policies have sublimits. Policies that contain sublimits of coverage may result in lower insurance policy limits being available for certain risks or types of claims. For example, an insurance policy may have a total policy limit of $10 million, but a sublimit of $5 million for cloud-based claims.

Also note that certain insurance policies have deductibles or self-insured retentions that apply to cloud-based risks. If so, that could limit the total amount of true coverage available for claims.

3. Consider the geographic scope of coverage.

Some cyber-security insurance policies, like first-party property insurance policies, may contain coverage based on events or incidents that take place in a certain territory, such as the United States, or for events or incidents that take place within a certain distance from the policyholder’s place of business. Considering the geographic limitations of a cybersecurity insurance policy is critical, in light of cloud providers and other vendors that may host data and software outside of the United States, as well as the increased amounts of global travel for company employees.

For companies based outside of or doing business outside of the United States, consider the issue in reverse: will the insurance policy cover any risks related to data sovereignty issues for countries outside the United States, for data hosted inside the United States (and outside those countries’ borders)?

4. Consider the scope of coverage for first-party risks relating to the cloud.

Companies should pay close attention to the scope of insurance coverage afforded for first-party losses relating to the cloud. If the company is unable to access the cloud for data, applications, or other purposes, how will the insurance apply?

Would another insurance policy, such as a first-party all risks insurance policy, apply if the risk was based on a weather-related incident? Would the cybersecurity insurance policy apply if there was a denial of service attack at the cloud provider? How long must the service be unavailable before the insurance policy provides coverage, and must the outage be continual?

5. Analyze the terms and conditions of contracts with cloud providers.

Companies also should look carefully at their contract with their cloud provider to understand what it will and won’t do for them in case of future issues. Cloud users should consider which company bears the risk of a data breach, and how much liability is transferred or retained for first-party risks, such as cloud unavailability. That knowledge will help companies in their risk transfer processes.

Scott Godes is an attorney with Dickstein Shapiro LLP. He is the Leader of the Intellectual Property Insurance Practice within the Insurance Coverage Group. He devotes a significant portion of his practice to representing corporate policyholders and insureds in complex disputes with their insurance companies. He also counsels policyholders regarding risk management and insurance coverage issues. He may be reached at godess@dicksteinshapiro.com. Mr. Godes also writes the award winning Corporate Insurance Blog and is on Twitter @insurancecvg.

Image credit: The Geffen Company

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Consumer United applies the power of the masses to selling insurance. People join the community, and then Consumer United negotiates lower prices on multiple products and services, including auto, home, and life insurance.

“We started Consumer United because we believe that together we ordinary consumers can take control of our too high cost of living,” said CEO and cofounder Justin Dangel on the site. “We all know that too many of our banks, insurance agencies, utilities providers, and credit card companies take us for granted hit us with unfair charges, make us wait on hold for hours and run up our costs much faster than inflation. […] It’s time we all got a fair shake.”

The team at Consumer United conducts research and partners with insurance agencies to offer exclusive deals and discounts on plans, and will also help customers figure out which plans are right for them. Partners include well-known insurance agencies like Met Life, Progressive, Travelers, HSBC, and Fidelity Life. It’s primary strength is with auto, but the new financing will accelerate the growth of other verticals as well as support national expansion and product development.

Thayer Street Partners contributed $30 million of this third round of funding, with Spark Capital picking up the rest. Consmer United is based in Boston.

CoverHound’s technology helps people compare multiple insurance policies and plans. The startup has raised a $4.5 million round to grow the team and develop new products. Its engine collects and compares data about car, motorcycle, renters, and homeowners insurance. Consumers can also buy and manage their plans directly on CoverHound and adapt their policies as circumstances change.

“We’ve spent the past year building an insanely complex comparison engine that takes just seconds to sift through tens of thousands of different carrier and coverage combinations to find you the best value,” said founder and CEO Basil Enan in a statement. But we’re just getting started. Our dream is to become the brand that consumers trust for all of their insurance needs.”

Insurance is a massive industry that has remained relatively untouched by startups. Changes in national health policy caused a huge uptick in the number of consumer health engagement companies last year, and other insurance verticals are ripe for disruption as well.

“Insurance is a massive industry that’s seen far too little innovation and is still terribly inefficient,” said investor Tom Loverro of RRE Ventures. “CoverHound empowers consumers for the first time to make informed auto and home insurance buying decisions rather than simply relying on the last commercial they saw on TV.”

RRE Ventures led this round, with participation from Bullpen Capital and existing investor Blumberg Capital. This is CoverHound’s first institutional round of funding. Enan initially started the company in 2010 after spending seven years working in the insurance industry. The founders participated in the AngelPad incubator program in 2011 and have since launched the platform nationwide and added a long list of strategic partners, including Progressive, Safeco Insurance, Travelers, and Fidelity property group.

CoverHound is based in San Francisco and has raised $6.5 million to date.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is not only about getting exercise and eating well. Making wise purchasing decisions is also a factor, but consumers often let cost dictate their choices. Linkwell has partnered with twenty-two insurance providers and big name brands to deliver coupons for “better-for-you” products to members of the network. Participating brands include Kellogg’s, Campbell’s, Unilever, Proctor & Gamble, Werther’s Original, Centrum, and Splenda.

While it is a stretch to call some of these brands “better-for-you,” insurance companies, brands, and retailers respond well to the marketing opportunities. The network gives them direct access to 100 million consumers through health plan direct mailings, websites, micro sites, emails, and mobile apps.

This third round of funding will bring additional health plans, brands, and retailers onto the platform. Health benefits company WellPoint led this investment, with participation from existing investors Spark Capital and HLM Venture Partners. Mass.-based Linkwell has raised $27.3 million to date.

The digital health industry grew dramatically last year and a funding report issued by Rock Health indicated that it will continue to thrive. Health consumer engagement represented $237 million in funding in 2012. These types of companies work to strengthen the connection between insurance providers and their consumers.

As many of the 45 to 50 million uninsured consumers get health insurance in 2014, this market will take off and millions more will be able to save money on health-promoting products like artificial sweeteners and caramels. Read the press release.  

Seismic shifts are occurring in the health industry. Policy is changing at the federal level, cultural attitudes about wellness are evolving, and new forms of technology are transforming the way patients relate to their bodies and the way clinicians practice medicine. One of the most important trends to watch is the growth of the digital health sector.

Today, health technology accelerator Rock Health released its 2012 Year-End Funding Report. The findings indicate that digital health technology will continue to thrive and become an increasingly significant part of health care industry, as well as the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Venture capital funding of digital health grew dramatically in 2012. Investors funneled 46 percent more money and made 56 percent more deals in health care in 2012 than in 2011, with the cumulative funding totaling $1.4 billion last year. This sharp incline contrasts with declining investment in traditional healthcare fields, like biotechnology, life sciences, and medical devices.

The most common theme for investment was health consumer engagement, which represented $237 million in funding. Navigating the tangled health care industry can be daunting. These companies help consumers figure out which care options are best for them and connect them with well-matched providers. Interest in these services is exploding among consumers and investors alike as the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) looms closer. Of the five largest deals, which represented more than 20 percent of the entire year’s funding, four were in this area.

“There are approximately 45 million to 50 million uninsured people today,” said Rock Health Chief Strategy Officer Malay Gandhi in an interview. “As we move towards health reform, the biggest impact will be in the insurance market — between 60 and 80 percent of these people will have moved into the insurance market in 2014, depending on the study. There is going to be a marketplace for retail health care, and consumers are going to need help with their purchases and decisions. Venture firms are making investments this year for 2014.”

In addition to health care reform, Gandhi also said that mobile technology is causing consumers to take a greater stake in their physical health, leading investors to take a greater stake in products that help them do that. About $150 million in venture funding went toward personal health tools and tracking last year. The quantified self movement is taking off as people are scoop up devices like the Nike FuelBand, Jawbone, and FitBit.

A number of apps also help people gain perspective on their physical well being and live healthier lives. Whether they provide healthy recipe ideas, detail workout regimens, or create social networks to reinforce positive habits, the companies that make these apps are instrumental in preventing illness and epidemics like obesity. Furthermore, people with chronic illnesses like diabetes can use consumer-facing technology to track their bodily functions and stay on course with treatment plans.

The third most common zone of investment are tools that capture and track clinical health records, which generated $108 million in deal flow. Health care organizations like insurance companies, clinics, and hospitals traditionally have gross inefficiencies in how they run, operating on heavily bureaucratic systems that are time-consuming, expensive, and at times, life threatening. Digital health companies that target the enterprise are creating more effective infrastructure by developing systems for electronic health records, timetabling and scheduling software, and communication tools.

When analyzing this data, Rock Health only included companies that received more than $2 million in venture funding. The median amount of all digital health deals came in at $6 million, nestled between a median $3.8 million for first rounds and $8.4 million for second rounds of financing. Castlight Health’s $100 million Series D round in May was the largest deal of the year, raised to grow its platform where employees compare the pricing of their healthcare options. Rock Health also found that there is a strong funnel of deals leading to potential IPOs, and rumors have Practice Fusion, Castlight, and ZocDoc as the most likely candidates to go public.

The data reveals that while venture firms are interested in health startups, they are not filling their portfolios with them. Of the 179 organizations that made digital health investments, only 35 made more than one deal, and only eight made three or more. Qualcomm Ventures led the pack with six health investments in 2012. Interestingly, many of the most active venture outlets in digital health are strategic investors, as opposed to traditional venture capital. Gandhi attributes this to the healthcare industry’s commitment to changing from within.

Overall, 2013 stands to be a successful year for digital health startups and their investors, not to mention the consumers who are gaining more and more control over their health.

Check out the slideshow featuring the report’s highlights: 2012 Digital Health Funding Report by @Rock_Health from Rock Health

Nationwide might be on your side, but the hackers who broke into it aren’t. The company released an apology today, revealing the October breach that compromised social security information.

The hack on Nationwide came through servers it shared with Allied Insurance, and may have affected up to 1.1 million people, according to The Washington Post. Hackers tapped into quite a payload of personally identifiable information including name, birthday, social security number, and driver license ID number. Nationwide says hackers may also have gotten away with marital status, gender, and work information such as your title, company, and company address. The company said it stores this type of information in order to give people quotes on its insurance.

“At this time, we have no evidence that any medical information or credit card account information was stolen in the attack,” the company said in a statement.

Nationwide says it found the attack the same day it happened, October 3, and immediately reported it to the authorities. It is currently sending out notices to everyone whose information was accessed and, through a partnership with Equifax, is giving those people free identity theft protection and credit monitoring. Anyone who uses Nationwide, or recently sent in their information for a quote, should check their bank statements often — even if you don’t believe your information was part of the hack.

As for who was behind the attack, Nationwide and law enforcement do not yet know. However, the insurance company does suspect that they came from outside the United States. Law enforcement officials are still looking through the forensic evidence to see if they can trace the event back to a specific person or country.

Nationwide image via tlarrow/Flickr

Or costing you more, if you’re Mario Andretti in a minivan.

Source: Progressive

Progressive’s Snapshot device

Progressive’s system, called Snapshot, works by plugging a little electronic dongle into your vehicle. Previously only available to select Progressive clients, Snapshot is now available to all clients … and customers of any other insurance agency.

The device tracks three driving behaviors: time of day you’re driving, distance you’re driving, and how many times you hit the brakes hard per mile.

Snapshot uploads that data to Progressive via the cellular network, and from those three driving behaviors, Progressive can assess your accident risk much more effectively than before.

“Until now, insurers had no effective way to capture actual driving behavior and factor that into the rates they could offer,” Progressive chief executive Glenn Renwick said in a statement. “But we have made a meaningful start toward personalized insurance pricing that’s based on measuring real-time driving behavior.”

In testing the program, Progressive said 70 percent of drivers who sign up for Snapshot actually save money, averaging $150 in annual savings. More than a million drivers have beta tested the device, saving more than $70 million so far.

The question is, of course: are already-safe drivers choosing the device, or is the device making drivers safer? Perhaps both, according to Progressive:

“Snapshot is an optional program, which tends to attract safe drivers — as evidenced by the fact that seven out of ten save,” a company representative told VentureBeat. But, the spokesperson added, “drivers with the device in their cars tend to be more aware of their driving overall.”

After a month of usage, drivers can go online to check their stats … and get a new quote, potentially saving them money.

What if Snapshot decides that you are a bad insurance risk? Will your costs go up?

According to Progressive, no: the program is discount only, and no current Progressive clients are charged more. Non-clients will get a quote which they can take or leave.

Realistically, however, insurance works by averaging risk.

Those who have accidents are subsidized by those who do not. If all safe drivers, who rarely crash, start using Snapshot or similar devices, insurance rates for those who do crash and are not using the device would, inevitably, have to rise at some point. When that happens, it might be better to be classified in the safe pool than see skyrocketing insurance rates.

And it’s hard to argue that this wouldn’t be fair.

Image credit: Serg Dibrova/ShutterStock

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

As the owner of an iPhone 4S and a New Yorker who travels around town every day, I’m constantly worried about my phone breaking in an accident or getting stolen. I bought Applecare+ the day I got the phone, but even that better-than-average warranty doesn’t cover theft or loss.

Enter the just-launched Protect Your Bubble, a company selling gadget insurance in an age where people carry around some of the most expensive items they own at all times. With individual policies for smartphones, tablets, laptops, cameras, and more, the company aims to give paranoid folks like me a little peace of mind.

“This is about protecting what’s important in your life,” Steven Ebbett, Director of Protect Your Bubble, told VentureBeat. “We’re trying to educate consumers about the value of what’s in their hands. Replacing a lost iPhone is extremely expensive and many consumers don’t realize just how costly it is.”

Protect Your Bubble has been operating in the U.K. since late 2008, and it currently insures 400,000 people with its finely-tuned policies. The company covers just about any gadget you can think of, while also offering coverage for pets and travel. On the gadget side, the company has set up different policy pricing based on how people use their gadgets and the likelihood of it getting lost. An iPhone 4S, for example, runs $8 per month while a digital camera costs $3 a month.

While speaking with Ebbett, I pointed out that many home and renter’s insurance policies could take care of a phone, camera, tablet or laptop that has been broken or stolen. Ebbett responded by saying that if you are not at home and say, forgot your phone at a bar, the insurance policy isn’t going to cover your loss.

Another thing Ebbett added: Traditional insurance providers are awfully slow to fill claims and it could take weeks to get a new phone. Upon filing your claim, Protect Your Bubble will replace your stolen phone the next day. Since our phones are so frighteningly important to us, having next-day replacement available probably would comfort some people.

The service, as of today, is available to anyone the U.S. It might seem like a hassle, but hey, when you drop your Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the toilet or your Nikon DSLR gets smacked against a cobblestone while getting that perfect shot of the running of the bulls, you’d be glad to have it.

Would you consider getting gadget insurance on your smartphone, camera, or laptop?

Phone being stolen photo: Adrian Britton/Shutterstock

Guidewire provides software targeted at insurance companies that provides property, workers’ compensation and casualty insurance to its customers. Its software product includes a web-based claims system, an enterprise application for transactions and other administrative tasks.

Founded in 2001, the San Mateo, California-based company brought in $190M in revenue in the past year (ending Oct. 31). The company’s net profits were $38.5 million in the twelve months ended October 31, 2011, while sales increased 51 percent to $52.4 million in the most recent quarter.

According to Guidewire, about 90 percent of the more than 7,000 insurance companies are still using outdated technology systems originally developed over 30 years ago, meaning there are still plenty of potential clients available. The company currently has more than 100 customers, including major insurance company clients, including Nationwide, CNA and American Family Insurance.

Guidewire, which filed its IPO paperwork in September, will use GWRE for its stock ticker. Two of the company’s biggest investors — U.S. Venture Partners and Bay Partners — have shown interest in purchasing up to 400,000 shares of common stock at the IPO price, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Guidewire offers software solutions for insurance companies that provide property, workers’ compensation and casualty insurance to its customers. Its software solutions includes a web-based claims system, an enterprise application for transactions and other administrative tasks.

The startup has over 100 customers, including major insurance company clients, including Nationwide, CNA and American Family Insurance.

Founded in 2001, the San Mateo, California-based company brought in $144 million in revenue last year and $121.5 million in nine months (ending April 30, 2011), according to the S-1 document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities and Citigroup will manage the IPO, while Stifel Nicolaus Weisel and Pacific Crest Securities will act as co-managers.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Clumsy iPhone users might want to check with AT&T on July 17, when the company will begin offering insurance plans to replace their devices in case of theft or an unfortunate accident like dropping the phone in a puddle.

The new plan will be managed by Asurion and cost $5 per month with a $50 or $125 non-refundable deductible, depending on iPhone model. AT&T previously offered an iPhone insurance plan for $12 a month with a deductible up to $199, depending on device model.

Comparably, Verizon offers a $7-a-month plan with a deductible up to $199. There’s also the popular AppleCare plan from Apple that costs a flat $69, but it does not cover loss, theft, or water damage.

It’s arguable whether the plan will be truly useful to AT&T customers, especially with the relatively steep $125 deductible for newer iPhones, which is not that much less than the $200 with-contract purchase price. However, if you have a history of breaking or losing your smartphone, and you’ve still got some time to go in your contract, this plan might be for you.

Photo via Patrick Hoesly

We’ll be exploring the most disruptive mobile trends at our fourth annual MobileBeat 2011 conference, on July 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. It will focus on the rise of 4G and how it delivers the promise of true mobile computing. We’re also accepting entries for our mobile startup competition at the show. MobileBeat is co-located with our GamesBeat 2011 conference this year. To register, click on this link. Sponsors can message us at sponsors@venturebeat.com.