On Tuesday (17 March), Homage, the on-demand caregiving services platform that combines qualified care professionals with smart technology, announced its partnership with insurtech Gigacover to launch Gigacover Essentials – a first-of-its-kind healthcare benefits programme – for all 2,000 of Homage’s Care Professionals and their dependents.
Under the programme, Homage’s Care Professionals will be able to gain access to affordable quality healthcare across an island-wide network of over 500 clinics ranging from General Practice (GP), Dental, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM); all of which can be self-administered through Gigacover’s mobile app.
The programme also comes with a complimentary annual health screening to detect early symptoms and help determine preventative treatment.
Launched in 2016, Homage helps seniors obtain more personalised and holistic care that allows them to age with grace, control, and dignity. The company uses a proprietary matching engine that pairs seniors with the best caregivers for their needs and manages care via the convenience of a mobile app.
Homage’s partnership with Gigacover signifies both organisations’ efforts to change the mindsets of workers in the flourishing gig economy towards medical protection; namely by providing them with super-flexible and affordable insurance products that can be accessed and administered via smartphones.
For Homage, the launch of the Gigacover Essentials is part of the company’s aim to extend care to its caregivers, while they themselves are providing care to communities.
“Our Care Professionals are at the heart of what we do at Homage. The partnership with Gigacover allows us to extend quality care to them, whilst they themselves are providing care to communities,” said Gillian Tee, Co-founder and CEO of Homage.
“This is part of our longer-term objective of supporting our Care Professionals’ career opportunities, whilst also raising the attention towards quality medical provision for those working in the gig economy,” she added.
Meanwhile, for Gigacover, its collaboration with Homage is aimed at uplifting underserved professionals in
Singapore’s gig economy, who have regularly found it difficult to access medical insurance coverage, especially in areas such as elderly caregiving – an area that will see higher demand as Singapore’s ageing population rises.
“After serving thousands of self-employed workers, we realised that our customers are not only looking for insurance protection but also flexible and affordable healthcare benefits,” noted Amerson Lin, Co-founder of Gigacover.
“This lack of protection is especially daunting for healthcare workers such as Homage’s Care Professionals. Our collaboration with Homage underlines our commitment to providing caregivers with peace of mind as they go about taking care of Singapore’s elderly and those who require long-term care at home,” he added.
