Research and advisory firm Aite Group announced the launch of ahealth insurance practice to complement the group's banking andsecurities and investments services and offer financialinstitutions, technology vendors, and business process outsourcingproviders insight into the health insurance and healthcaresectors.

"Aite Group is very excited to bring its research model to thehealth insurance and healthcare industries," says Gwenn Bezard, apartner with Aite Group. "With the addition of the health insurancepractice, Aite will leverage an already strong expertise in thepayments business as well as new expertise Aite is bringing onboard to create this new practice."

The health insurance practice will focus on the health insuranceand healthcare industries with an emphasis on providing anintegrated analysis of business, IT, and regulatory issuesaffecting each area.

Research coverage within this practice will encompass thefollowing topics: health insurance business, regulatory, andtechnology trends; healthcare business, regulatory, and technologytrends; health insurance payments; consumer-defined healthcare;individual insurance; electronic medical records; claim processing;health insurers' and healthcare providers' IT spending; and ITservices and business process outsourcing in the health insuranceand healthcare verticals.

Kunal Pandya, who recently joined Aite Group as a senioranalyst, is the lead analyst driving the development of the healthinsurance practice. He brings more than a decade of financialservices experience, including consulting experience in theconsumer-defined healthcare, banking, health insurance, andpayments industries.