OFT passes just one PMI complaint to FSA

Only one complaint about the structure of private medical insurance (PMI) contracts has been forwarded to the FSA by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), COVER has learned.

The issue was raised following an outcry from the broker community that called on the OFT to extend the reach of its private healthcare review.

After confirming the matter was outside its remit the OFT noted the attention it had received and said all complaints would be passed to the FSA.

However, despite the strength of feeling released at the time, just one respondent gave the Office permission to forward on their submission when it subsequently sought consent to do so.

A spokesman for the OFT told COVER that: "We asked those who submitted concerns about PMI contract terms if they would be happy for us to refer their complaints to the FSA.

"To date, we have referred one email on to the FSA."

Both the British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) and the Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries (AMII) made submissions to the OFT's consultation asking it to look further at PMI's interaction with private healthcare.

And the pair called for intermediaries to make their own submission with examples of consumer detriment and adding support to expand the scope of the review.

However, neither body has since been contacted by the OFT about passing their responses on to the FSA, although BIBA is still addressing the subject of PMI contract problems.

Steve Foulsham, technical services manager at BIBA, told COVER said the Association was continuing to search for evidence to pass on to the FSA and OFT.

"We put this back into the PMI focus group and asked for case studies and examples of where there is harm," he said.

"We are waiting for evidence but its always difficult as many people are happy to hold their hands up and say there's been difficulties, but when it comes down to it they don't always want to take it to the next stage.

"That's not peculiar to only PMI," he added.

Michael Payne, general secretary of AMII, added that its response had largely concerned policyholders being made aware of benefit fee maximums before treatment and also the imposition of treatment networks on existing policyholders.

The OFT did not reveal who the one submission had come from or how many it had requested permission to forward on.

It did confirm that a progress report of the review is expected during the summer with the final market study published before the end of the year.