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Interviews

iPMI Global Speaks with Mike Rizo, CEO, PharmCare Services

In this iPMI Global Executive Interview, Christopher Knight, CEO, iPMI Global, met with Mike Rizo, CEO, PharmCare Services. They discussed PharmCare Services role as an International Pharmaceutical Manager (IPM) and the evolution from a training and staffing company to a global provider of specialized therapies, emphasizing their mission to align medication management with improved patient outcomes and cost-efficiency worldwide. 

31-07-2025 iPMI Global

Interviews

iPMI Global Speaks wth Lourdes Peters, CEO and Chairman at World of America

In this iPMI Global Executive Interview, Christopher Knight, CEO, iPMI Global, met with Lourdes Peters, CEO and Chairman at World of America.  World of America, under her leadership, introduced Private Medical Insurance (IPMI) and International Travel to Latin America and the Caribbean more than 40 years ago. WOA is a leading privately owned agency specializing in the LATAM market, with its main office in Miami. It has a presence in 24 countries with more than 2,400 advisors WOA's portfolio includes banking...

08-07-2025 iPMI Global

Pojistovna VZP Partners with Health4Travel to Redefine Digital Healthcare Access for Expatriates in the Czech Republic

Across Europe, access to outpatient healthcare remains one of the most persistent challenges in private and travel insurance, particularly for expatriates navigating unfamiliar and fragmented healthcare systems. What should be a straightforward medical visit often becomes complex, slow, and difficult to coordinate, creating frustration for patients and inefficiency across the insurance value chain.

Against this backdrop, Pojistovna VZP, a.s. (PVZP) has partnered with Health4Travel to address how expatriates access healthcare services in the Czech Republic. The partnership reflects a deliberate strategic decision by PVZP to confront a long-standing industry problem and kick-start its 2026 strategic agenda to modernise healthcare access by building a more sustainable and resilient system that better serves expatriates, insurers, and healthcare providers alike.

PVZP is a Czech non-life insurance company fully owned by Všeobecná zdravotní pojišťovna (VZP ČR), the country’s largest public health insurer. PVZP holds a dominant position in private health insurance for expatriates and operates a unique network of thousands of contracted medical facilities. This position gives PVZP both the scale and institutional mandate to lead meaningful change in how healthcare access for foreigners is structured and delivered.

While PVZP sets the strategic direction and ambition for change, Health4Travel acts as the enabler of this transformation, providing the digital foundation required to reshape how outpatient care is accessed, coordinated, and experienced within a fragmented healthcare landscape.

A central element of the partnership is the ambition to establish a digitally enabled, end-to-end “super network” of participating clinics. The vision is to move beyond fragmented directories and disconnected processes by adding a digital operating layer on top of PVZP’s established clinic network, supporting both member self-service and call center assisted coordination, including available doctor search, appointment booking, navigation to the clinic and cashless payment and automated billing.

“Health4Travel allows us to bring private health insurance to a new technological level,” said Robert Kareš, Chairman of PVZP. “In my more than 30 years as a senior insurance executive, I have not seen a system with this level of potential for medical insurance, not only for travellers, but for anyone in need of medical treatment, advice, or a second opinion. By combining PVZP’s experience and extensive medical network with the capabilities of Health4Travel, we believe this partnership can pave the way for a fundamentally improved approach to speed-up healthcare access for expatriates in the Czech Republic.”

“I am confident this is the start of a long-term partnership,” said Marko Kauppinen, CEO and Founder of Health4Travel. “Our team and technology are focused on enabling foreigners in the Czech Republic to experience a smooth, intuitive journey when accessing quality healthcare services. By providing PVZP with a digital backbone built on its existing medical network, we also create a foundation that allows new, value-adding preventive healthcare and wellbeing services to be introduced efficiently over time.”

By pairing PVZP’s long-standing leadership in expatriate insurance with Health4Travel’s role as a digital transformation enabler, the partnership aims to set a new standard for how healthcare access can be delivered in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.

About PVZP

Pojistovna VZP, a.s. (PVZP) is a Czech non-life insurance company and part of the VZP Group. It provides private and travel insurance products for foreign residents and visitors in the Czech Republic, supported by one of the country’s largest networks of contracted medical providers. Its parent, Všeobecná zdravotní pojišťovna (VZP ČR), insures nearly six million people through public health insurance, highlighting its substantial market presence.

https://www.pvzp.cz/en/

About Health4Travel

Health4Travel is a European technology company focused on global healthcare access, headquartered in the Netherlands with an international footprint including Finland and Singapore. The company supports insurers and assistance organisations in improving outpatient care by providing an end-to-end digital platform that enables scalable, EU-GDPR-compliant access to healthcare services across international markets. Drawing on operating and technology principles developed in the airline industry, Health4Travel delivers a more integrated and customer-centric approach to healthcare access for international business and leisure travellers, expatriates, and digital nomads helping partners move from fragmented processes to future-ready systems.

https://www.health4travel.com

 

Welcome To iPMI Global

iPMI Global is the leading business intelligence provider for international private medical, health, travel and expatriate insurance markets worldwide. Due to the nomadic nature of the international private medical insurance (IPMI) market, iPMI Global is an internet based news service for worldwide insurance and medical assistance professionals who need to understand the impacts of insurance and healthcare policy, regulatory, and legislative developments.

Senior level business executives, in over 120 countries, rely on iPMI Global to stay 1 step ahead of the risk and on the inside track of international PMI.

Covering business travellers, high net worth individuals, expatriate and leisure travel markets, iPMI Global is the only international news source covering the most exciting sector of international health insurance: international private medical insurance.

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