WPA are helping to simplify options and solutions so that they can help customers with services that are right for them
The perception that dealing with PMI providers can be a lumbering and tortuous process, particularly regarding the filling of application forms and making a claim, may have been valid years ago.
Reducing the need to get information from GPs at the claims stage, which could often take two weeks, has been a particularly interesting development for the industry, allowing many decisions to be virtually instantaneous.
For example, many insurers now create a dynamic form, which goes straight to the specialist with specific questions needing clarification, cutting out the need to see a claimant's entire medical records.
Although WPA was striving to become paperless when business development manager Dowse-Brenan first joined 11 years ago, the drive is now more towards end-to-end digital solutions, with customers making contact via Apps or secure portals from the start.
He explains: "A lot of our technological development today is in-house, and we have a growing IT development team."
Reality check
The complexity of healthcare is such that customers can suffer from up to 10,000 conditions, choose from 14,000 consultants or 22,000 therapists or visit one of hundreds of hospitals!
But significant enabling developments from WPA are helping to simplify options and solutions so that they can help customers with services that are right for them.
DELOS is a pioneering and award-winning automated claims technology, which augments the customer services teams' decision making, guiding them through the claims process and playing a pivotal role in achieving consistency and simplicity.
WPA Health App is putting policies into the hands of customers and available 24/7. It remains the only UK health insurer app to authorise claims and has undergone a 15-fold increase in usage in the last year.
iZone portal is for intermediaries that provide a self-serve capability, allowing them to log on and run the most common types of admin changes instantaneously.
Onwards and upwards
In the wake of Covid-19, the pressure for health insurers to move quickly and make the claims process smoother is ongoing; KPMG has even described the pandemic as the "wake-up call the industry needed". WPA adds it will most likely lead the insurance sector to accelerate business innovation and shift more quickly from physical to digital channels and products, with end-to-end automation and optimization of processes from intake through to claims.
Dowse-Brenan agrees there is still plenty more to come - although this will never be at the expense of keeping health insurance personal.
This myth-busting article is one of a series of 10 addressing common myths around PMI. Access the full list
This article was funded by WPA
