Good Returns looks deeper at insurers following news of withdrawn benefit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and investigations and tests, costing $8 million, a stark contrast to Southern Cross’ 2019 review which found the now withdrawn benefit had paid an average of $414 per claim for 801 members and that most of the claims were for IV infusions or overnight accommodation associated with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