PMI providers are failing to improve service standards, says new AMII survey
Intermediaries are dissatisfied with the service they receive from healthcare providers, according to members of the Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries (AMII).
In the AMII's latest survey, only three providers, PPP, BUPA and WPA, were found to have improved their service to intermediaries and no providers scored any higher than a 'good' rating, on a scale from 'bad' to 'excellent'. The survey also revealed intermediaries have to make, on average, nine phone calls a day ' around two and a half hours ' chasing queries with providers.
Bill Poynton, former chairman of the AMII, said the results of the survey were disappointing and that insurers needed to start providing intermediaries with the same service levels offered to other customers.
'Last year's survey highlighted several areas that were in need of improvement and this year's results show that little has been done to improve them.
'The results are disappointing. We conducted this survey from a different point of view than other surveys ' by looking at the service that intermediaries get. Insurers are not putting enough into resources and do not service their existing clients well. They seem to overlook the fact that intermediaries and brokers are customers too and do not raise standards of service accordingly,' said Poynton.
BCWA, like the majority of providers, failed to convince intermediaries that its service has improved.
Richard Esler, commercial manager at BCWA, said: 'Everyone in the industry is striving very hard to improve standards of service for intermediaries. As a company I think we faired fairly well, but the results are still disappointing.'
But David Ashdown, communications director at WPA, which scored relatively well in the survey, said that the key to better service is to provide intermediaries with a level of service that reflects the importance of their role.
'We have, over the past year, gone out of our way to cultivate the service we provide to intermediaries. We made a positive decision to look at how we could improve standards to bring them to the same level as they are for customers. After all, intermediaries are customers ' and their role is vital to our business,' he said.
