The transformation of icare’s workers’ insurance is progressing well as the business looks to become easier to deal with.
Beth Uehling, general manager, Return to Work & Support at icare, said that the transformation has been well received by stakeholders as it was based on close to 200,000 invitations sent for surveys, with an 11% response rate, and face to face forums and presentations to stakeholders.
“We’ve done two years of research to bring this together, so the response to it has been quite good,” Uehling told
Insurance Business. “They [stakeholders] have told us that they are looking forward to having somebody who knows their claims, manages their claims and provides more support with injury prevention, which should result in lower premiums for them.”
Earlier this year, icare announced a host of changes to its workers’ insurance business.
The firm launched a more direct offering to allow new business to quote and bind online directly with icare rather than through a scheme agent. icare also announced that from January 01, 2018, EML will be icare’s appointed claims service provider for new workers’ insurance claims.
Contracts for GIO and
Allianz, icare’s other claims services agents for workers’ insurance, have been extended through 2018 with both agents continuing to managing existing claims from January 01, 2018.
John Nagle, group executive, workers’ insurance, at icare, said that the move represents a “big change” for brokers dealing with the firm as it acknowledges that “they are the agent of the customer.”
“We cannot pay commissions, we’re not allowed to by law; however, what we are saying is that brokers have an important role to play,” Nagle told
Insurance Business. “On that basis, they are more of an advisor, a trusted advisor to the customer.”
Nagle said that the changes to the workers’ insurance program are designed to make the firm easier to deal with from the broker perspective.
A new online portal will launch in the near future to allow brokers to process directly into icare’s systems so they can track premiums and claims, Nagle said.
“It’s all about making their life easy, and if we make their life easy we make the customer’s life easy,” he remarked.
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icare aims to improve injured workers’ health outcomes with new tool
