Chatswood serves the life and health insurance sector in New Zealand with market intelligence, data, and bespoke consulting services. Some of these are provided in conjunction with Quality Product Research Limited - a subsidiary that brings you Quotemonster.
We believe that good decisions are more likely to occur when we have good information about the market environment in which we operate. Intuitive leaps and creative decisions are always required, of course, but the more they are based on a firm foundation of observation, the better they tend to be.
Southern Cross financial results released
Southern Cross Health Society have released their financial results for the year ended 30 June 2023.
$1.466 billion premium revenue
$1.295 billion paid out in claims – equal to paying 88.4 cents in claims out of every dollar received in premiums (compared to an industry average of 65.9 cents)
Premium prices were up approximately 5.1% compared to the previous year
Southern Cross Health Society had a $5.4 million deficit, while the wider Southern Cross Health Society Group had a deficit of $16.5 million
Group reserves (net assets) of $597.3 million
Paid $3.4 million claims
99% of claims are now being submitted electronically
Membership grew by 31,929 to reach 940,105 members
223 businesses buying health insurance on behalf of their employees joined this year
Southern Cross makes up 60% of NZ’s health insurance market
More than 20,000 members accessed virtual appointments via CareHQ, more than double the year prior
Members accessed 6,912 online mental health sessions with Raise, 6,324 annual health checks with MedPro and 20,663 virtual GP consultations delivered via CareHQ
Employee engagement score of 82%
Nick Astwick, Chief Executive, commented on Southern Cross’ goals around keeping premiums affordable and helping members lead healthier lives.
“…the affordability of their premiums is critical. So, we’re going to do a little bit more in prevention rather than just treatment. You’re going to see us be a lot more active with our members and our healthcare providers to prevent high-cost things from happening earlier in the cycle and actually have more affordability options.”
“Also one thing we are going to focus a lot more on in the coming years is making our members aware of how they can live healthier lives and not just be there when they’re sick. So, you’ll see a lot more from Southern Cross around trying to increase the health span – the number of years you have that are healthy – and making our members aware of that.”
More daily news:
Katrina Shanks to leave Financial Advice NZ
Chubb extend 2 months’ FREE and Multi-benefit discount campaigns until the end of the year
Lyla Dang awarded 2023 Chubb Life Actuarial Scholarship
ANZIIF announces Tim Tez and Sarah Phillips have joined ANZIIF’s Board of Directors.
Wotton + Kearney release 2023 NZ Insurance Market Trends Update
Wotton + Kearney have released their 2023 NZ Insurance Market Trends Update. Of note, it includes updates on:
· increase in director accountability for ESG issues and climate-related financial disclosures;
· how organisations will need to consider how applicable tikanga values should inform their conduct when dealing with employment relationship issues;
· how organisations need rigorous processes in place for restructures and redundancies;
· extensions to Schedule 2 Occupational Diseases;
· changes to the regulation of medicines, medical devices and natural health products;
· the passing of the Therapeutic Products Bill 2023;
· cyber, privacy and data security.
More daily news:
Cost of living crisis is changing conversations advisers are having with clients
Katrina Shanks writes of the importance of quality financial advice
mySolutions webinar 'Are you maximising your marketing potential' 9am 27 September
27% of 4,120 claims received by IFSO were related to health, life and disability insurance
Lifetime webinar 'Your Homeownership Adventure Begins Here' 7pm 27 September
Man trying to claim pregnancy care on his health insurance policy has complaint turned down by IFSO
Alzheimer’s Society recommends regular exercise to cut dementia risk
AIA has released 2022 Claims Data
AIA has released their annual claims data for 2022.
93% of all claims received were accepted.
Paid $646.4 million in claims.
Broken down this comes to $121.5 million in Health claims, $233.8 million in Life claims, $111 million in Trauma claims, $74.4 million in Income Protection claims and $15.3 million in Total Permanent Disablement claims paid.
Over 30,000 health claims were submitted online via the myAIA customer self-service portal.
Life insurance accounted for 42% of all claims.
For those aged 20 - 29 accidents are the main claim for life cover while the main claim for life cover in those aged 30 - 59 is cancer.
Over 815,000 New Zealanders are covered by AIA.
More daily news:
AIA announces major expansion of its gym network
Jon-Paul Hale questions fairness of AIA moving policies after a couple separates
Study finds good financial advice could add almost 6 per cent to New Zealanders’ wealth in 2023
Good Returns looks deeper at insurers following news of withdrawn benefit
Last week we wrote about Southern Cross refuting claims advisers weren’t informed about dropping a $60,000 a year benefit for non-surgical hospitalisations. Good Returns has followed up their earlier enquiries by approaching other insurers to find out their cover levels to see if Southern Cross’ citation of low rate of use was similar across other insurers.
While they were able to find out AIA has an equivalent $500,000 a year cover, nib maximum coverage up to $300,000 a year on Ultimate Health Max, Accuro Smartcare/Smartcare+ has cover up to $300,000 per year and Unimed Hospital Select Plus up to $65,000 per year they weren’t able to get specific claims amounts from any of the insurers aside from Partners Life.
Partners Life’s three largest categories of claim against this benefit last year were cancer, costing $12.4 million in payouts, digestive tract conditions, costing $9.1 million, and investigations and tests, costing $8 million, a stark contrast to Southern Cross’ 2019 review which found the now withdrawn benefit had paid an average of $414 per claim for 801 members and that most of the claims were for IV infusions or overnight accommodation associated with sleep studies.
Southern Cross’ head of customer strategy and experience, Nic Johnson, has previously said
“The majority of medical (or hospitalisation) claims at the time were already covered under existing benefits, such as the surgical procedures, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and diagnostic tests/imaging benefits”.
These benefits “more precisely defined coverage, and, to align with this approach, the non-surgical benefit was repositioned so that it more accurately reflected what members received.”
More daily news:
Southern Cross Health Society and ANZ awarded at the 2023 Red Hat innovation awards
AIA and Fidelity Life awarded Top Insurance Employers 2023
Partners Life has launched medical claims on the Fineos Platform
The ICNZ Scholarship is now open for submissions
AIA held its third annual NZ Peak Performance Summit
The New Zealand Underwriting Agencies Council’s (NZUAC) Expo is in October in Auckland
Data is plural - international cancer data
The excellent blog, data is plural, publish links to open-source data which may be of interest. One that caught our eye is a link to International cancer statistics.
The World Health Organization’s Global Cancer Observatory provides interfaces to a range of studies and statistics. Its Cancer Today portal features tables, charts, and maps of “incidence, mortality and prevalence for year 2020 in 185 countries or territories for 36 cancer types by sex and age group.” Those figures come from the latest GLOBOCAN estimates, calculated by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer based on data from national and regional registries. Note: “Caution must be exercised when interpreting these estimates, given the limited quality and coverage of cancer data worldwide at present, particularly in low- and middle-income countries,” the researchers warn. Previously: Statistics from the American Cancer Society (DIP 2016.01.27).
This may be especially useful if you want to make comparisons between markets, especially those that you may consider peers, or markets to which we might aspire to be peers with, in terms of cancer treatment and survival rates.
Report that gives an overview of the New Zealand insurance market published
Duncan Cotterill’s ‘Covering the New Zealand Insurance market 2023’ report has been published, giving an overview of the current market and covering key issues facing insurers. Some key items of interest in the report include:
An article on ESG trends and mandatory climate reporting – who it applies to, what do CRE’s have to do, what reporting is required, phased implementation and penalties. They also discuss greenwashing and the recent amendment to The Companies Act 1993 that clarifies that directors can consider matters other than the maximisation of profit when considering the best interests of a company.
A discussion on the types of costs or losses usually covered by cyber insurance.
A discussion on the approach the Supreme Court has confirmed when interpreting exclusion clauses in insurance policies.
More daily news:
Jon-Paul Hale feels let down by insurers' service delivery
Fidelity Life extend their no policy fees offer to 31 March 2024
FinTechNZ Innovation Roundtable: Shaping Future Retail Payments 19 September
mySolutions webinar 'Manage your entire AML compliance from one platform' 9am 13 September
Australian advisers and stakeholders outline alternative solutions for life insurance remuneration
Southern Cross responds to accusations it dropped a $60k benefit without informing customers or advisers
Southern Cross has refuted a Good Returns article where advisers complained about not being informed about Southern Cross dropping a $60,000 a year benefit for non-surgical hospitalisations.
Southern Cross removed the non-surgical hospitalisation benefit as part of the Society’s benefit review in 2020, and Southern Cross’ head of customer strategy and experience, Nic Johnson has said that “Members were communicated with at the time of the benefit change.”
Johnson said that Southern Cross advisers were informed of the changes at the time via a virtual meeting, and that the company’s adviser gateway portal to manage their customers’ policies had information on the changes also.
Johnson said
“The original intention of the non-surgical hospitalisation benefit was as a 'catch-all' for eligible healthcare services that required in-hospital medical treatment. Based on a 2019 review of our claims data, which showed that the benefit was not widely utilised, it was assessed that this benefit was no longer fit-for-purpose.”
“The majority of medical (or hospitalisation) claims at the time were already covered under existing benefits, such as the surgical procedures, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and diagnostic tests/imaging benefits.”
We have commented on the change here.
Quality Product Research are in the process of conducting a review of the score for the feature, giving Southern Cross time to respond with more details of equivalent benefits being present in other parts of the medical insurance. We will raise the results of the review with our Southern Research Advisory Board next month – and update research subscribers immediately.
More daily news:
Katrina Shanks writes about whether cryptocurrencies are a safe investment
Rob Hennin talks about why he loves working in the insurance sector
Southern Cross funds the ‘Under One Umbrella’ report on mental health and addictions
nib publishes their top five medical claims for July
Changes to IFSO terms mean more consumers will be able to access free dispute resolution
Effective 1 September 2023, changes to the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme (IFSO Scheme) and its terms of reference (TOR) and constitution will mean more consumers will be able to access IFSO services.
Once the changes take place, IFSO will be able to investigate insurance claims complaints and financial services’ products complaints up to $350,000+GST, or $2,625+GST per week for regular payments. This is an increase from current limits of $200,000+GST and $1,500+GST respectively.
Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Karen Stevens said
“Previously, anyone with a claim over the limit of $200,000 would have had to pay for legal representation to take their case to court.
Court proceedings are not cheap and they’re certainly not free – like the IFSO Scheme process. The changes bring us into line with some other dispute resolution schemes in the financial sector, and will mean a number of extra cases are now eligible for us to look at.”
More daily news:
Justine Gilliland appointed to Unimed's board
Chubb Life release claims statistics for 2022: 93% of all claims received were paid
Katrina Shanks writes about side hustles to boost income during a cost of living crisis
Kate Dron believes there will still be more mergers and acquisitions in NZ insurance space
Financial Advice NZ webinar 'Navigating the world of digital currencies with confidence' 16 August
Linley Wood appointed as an Independent Director on the Chubb Life NZ Board
Official unemployment rose to 3.6% in the June quarter
Hospital ED shuts doors due to ‘doctor shortages’
Calls for bowel cancer screening age to be lowered
Government has made some progress on reducing health waitlist times
Fidelity Life announce two key appointments
Leigh Bennett has been promoted internally to the role of Head of Underwriting. Leigh will be managing Fidelity Life’s 34-strong Underwriting team. She will be responsible in ensuring policy applications are assessed appropriately, making quality decisions and focused on achieving good customer and commercial outcomes. Most recently the Product Owner in the company’s digital team, Leigh has nine years’ experience in the life insurance sector.
Mat Bark has been appointed to the newly created role of Head of Channel Enablement. Mat is tasked with shaping Fidelity Life’s future adviser channel experience. This includes business ownership of new digital interfaces and platform innovation, modernising the legacy and in force servicing experience for advisers, and leading Fidelity Life’s Group insurance re-platform. Mat was previously Head of Existing Business at AIA.
Bronwyn Kirwan, Chief Sales and Service Officer at Fidelity Life says
“Following the delivery of some key transformation activities, we are now heavily focused on our distribution franchise and are delighted to announce the appointment of both Leigh and Mat in these critical leadership roles to help drive and enhance our engagement with advisers.”
More daily news:
Southern Cross Healthcare is recruiting for a Head of Platforms and Customer Services and a Head of Cyber Security
ANZ launch 5 in 5 with ANZ podcast
nib's top five medical claims for June released
The government has injected a further $225 million of capital into Kiwibank
Vaccine that protects against UTI’s available in NZ but not currently funded by Pharmac
Financial Advice NZ will run ‘Maximise your money 5-day challenge’ for Sorted Money Month
Financial Advice NZ are running a 5-day maximise your money challenge this Sorted Money Month. The campaign is split by different age brackets and aims to help people learn tips and strategies for establishing good financial habits.
1 – 5 August – Maximise your Money in your 20s
7 – 11 August – Maximise your Money in your 30s
14 – 18 August – Maximise your Money in your 40s
21 – 25 August – Maximise your Money in your 50s and 60s
Sorted is running a series of webinars over Money Month
1 August – Sort your everyday money
1 August – Banqer: Virtual Economy Experience (supported by Partners Life)
8 August – Sort your debt
15 August – Sort your savings
22 August – Sort your KiwiSaver
22 August – Mint Asset Management: Making cents of your money
More daily news:
Fidelity Life paid out $30m in Trauma and Trauma multi claims last year
AIA’s latest claims stats show 93% of claims accepted
Partners Life’s latest claims stats show 89% of claims accepted
Financial Advice NZ webinar ‘Super Wednesday hosted by our Risk MAC' 9 August
Finalists for Financial Services Council 2023 Awards announced
Consumer NZ calls for NZ banks to match what UK & Australia banks do to combat cybercrime
Astrud Burgess appointed as ANZ Group Chief Marketing Officer