The British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) and the Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries (AMII) have announced a new industry standard template for private medical insurance (PMI) authorisation forms.
It is designed to tackle the problem of letters of authority being mistaken for letters of appointment and includes a new standard review period of 90 days.
The bodies believe it clearly establishes the options a customer has in dealing with a new broker, and where a customer only wishes a new intermediary to review their existing policy, sets out a clear timescale.
Commenting, Andrew Tripp, chairman of AMII, said: "This new standard form will improve consumer confidence in our profession and bring a level of uniformity across the market in how letters of authority or appointment are handled by insurers and intermediaries."
Peter Staddon, head of technical services at BIBA, added: "We have put these documents together to address market issues of uncertainty and customer confusion where some letters of authority have been mistaken for letters of appointment."
This is the first initiative from the AMII-BIBA PMI panel that was established last year and was launched at the AMII Autumn conference in Gaydon, Warwickshire.
