IB Talk

Narrator 1 [00:00:05]Welcome to IB talk, the leading podcast for the insurance industry across the UK and Ireland brought to you by Insurance business. 

Mia Wallace [00:00:22] Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of IB talk. The insurance industry podcast brought to you by Insurance Business. My name is Mia Wallace, Senior Editor of Insurance at Insurance Business, and today we're going to be doing a deep dive into the ins and outs of proactive rehabilitation support or PRS in the context of Employers Liability Insurance is such an important topic on the agenda. I'm delighted to be joined by two experts Alexa Johnson, Lead Underwriter of Travelers Europe's care practice. And Stephanie Przybylski, Medical Claim Manager at Travelers Europe. Thanks to you both for joining me here today. 

Alexa Johnson [00:00:59]Hi Mia. 

Stephanie Przybylski [00:01:00]  

Hi Mia.  

Mia Wallace [00:01:01] Lovely to have you here and to start us off. I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your respective roles and key responsibilities with Travelers Europe, maybe starting with you there Alexa. 

Alexa Johnson [00:01:13] Hi, yeah, of course, as Mia said, I'm the Lead Underwriter for the Health and Care Product at Travelers. My main office is based up in Manchester, but my role is national. So I support our care underwriters up and down the country, helping them hopefully to win retain business. I also have a handful of care cases myself that I look after on a day to day basis. But I also enjoy getting out and about this team brokers clients attending trade events. 

Stephanie Przybylski [00:01:40] My role here at Travelers is the Medical Claim Manager so I'm a nurse by background. with many years experience of this type of product. My primary key responsibilities are to advise claims underwriters, and the wider areas that are business with any medical information they need. However, the main area of my job is to manage and coordinate rehabilitation within the claims. I deal with all aspects of rehabilitation work closely, not only with our own claims teams, but also claimants solicitors, rehabilitation providers and our insurers to get the best outcome for the injured party. 

Mia Wallace [00:02:16] And can you give me an overview of proactive rehabilitation supports and how it fits in with an employer's liability policy? 

Stephanie Przybylski  [00:02:24] The main benefit benefits of proactive rehab support is it provides a really good comprehensive rehab assessment to support the employee back into the workplace. It gives a really good timely access to a return to work rehab program, which is assessed at the earliest stage of medical intervention. And with the ongoing problems within the NHS we can arrange this type of treatment very, very quickly. In the private sector, there is a cost reduction for our customers by effectively managing and reducing the amount of time the employed person is not at work. And that reduction is in hidden costs. So there are high costs associated with members of staff not being at work. And this can include loss of production, recruitment costs, and also training of additional staff. There's the potential overtime of existing staff to cover for an injured employee. This product really does resonate with my nursing background in assisting people to regain their independence and get back to function and ultimately returned to work.  

Alexa Johnson [00:03:25] Just to learn from what Steph said it's basically an extension of the EL and the employees ability section. It's triggered when an employee is injured at work and signed off for more than seven days and providing each refer to us within 30 days of that incident. Our nurse will review the injury and if it's deemed appropriate refer on to a suitable rehab provider. If the incident remains as pure proactive rehabilitation, then none of the charges sifts as claims on the claims experience. 

Mia Wallace [00:03:56] So what are some of the key benefits that PERS provides for insurance? And can you provide an example of some of those benefits and action? 

Alexa Johnson [00:04:04] So Steph has already highlighted a few of these and how they can positively impact the employers liability section. I think it's important to say that just because an employee has utilized the proactive rehabilitation, it doesn't mean that they still won't bring a claim. If they've been injured, they may seek compensation as such. However, a good number of employers liability claims we find are brought often because the they don't feel like they've been supported following that accident. By offering their practice of rehabilitation they've had access to rehabilitation right from day one, getting them the support that they need. So Should a claim follow any ultimate settlement should hopefully be mitigated as the injured employee hasn't had to wait on an ever growing waiting list. Get an employee rehabilitated and back into work quickly reduces any loss of earnings, a win to both the employer and the employee.  

Mia Wallace [00:04:56] Thank you very much for that. So Steph I was wondering if you could give me some examples of cases where the provision of PRS has helped to protect clients and support their employees. 

Stephanie Przybylski [00:05:06] Yeah, of course, we were notified of, sadly a stabbing injury at the premises of our insured. And the injured party sustained very, very nicely stab wounds to the chest and sides. And they had to be airlifted to hospital. We received a referral via the insured. And with the employees agreement, we did an initial needs assessment, which is a face to face assessment that was undertaken. The recommendations made were for scar management, fatigue management, physiotherapy and psychology. Psychology was a big part of this. As you can imagine, this was all undertaken on a private basis and with their own individual case manager working with them. I receive regular updates from their case manager on the progress of the treatment and how they were getting your own. Vocational rehabilitation was reviewed and contact was made to our insured regarding a return to work. This person was very keen to get back to work and just get on with their life. The injured party had a greatest return to work initially and within three weeks of starting back to work, they were working their normal duties and hours, which is just amazing. They did incredibly well. The other case study I've I have is that we were notified by the insured as one of their employees sustained an injury to his non dominant shoulder. He did have NHS physio, but they only gave him one session, and he was sent on his way to undertake a home exercise program. With the employees agreement, a telephone assessment was undertaken. This time and recommendations initially were just for case management and some private physiotherapy and to liaise with his employees regarding a return to work, private physio was started and he did have five sessions but he didn't really make any, any great improvements or private referral to an orthopedic consultant was made, and a recommendation of surgery was made and this was arranged privately via our diagnostic provider. NHS timeframes for this were over a year. So in between time he, this person could not go back to work. They recovered incredibly well and they had further postdoc physiotherapy, the case manager liaised with the employers and an initial great graded return to work was made and within four weeks, they've returned to full duties.  

Mia Wallace [00:07:17] Absolutely incredible to see that two amazing examples of PRS really in action their staff and Alexa looking to the broker markets, what opportunities does this coverage solution provide for brokers? 

Alexa Johnson [00:07:30] For me, it kind of enables them to recommend a policy which goes above and beyond the basic insurance contract. PRS offers a great benefit to our insured by providing a form of rehabilitation through the policy, it supports their employees to get back to work. Now, this is surely helpful at a time when the workforce is already very, very stretched. Also, looking slightly ahead under the new Care Quality Commission framework, I understand that something they'll be looking at is how employers care for and support for their staff. PRS is a fantastic way that they can do that. Absolutely agree with that. And what are some of your top tips for brokers looking to get involved with prs? The brokers it's all about understanding the benefit and remembering to let the policyholders know that it's there. The most successful users of the PRS. Are those policyholders that have really embedded it into their process. When they have an incident, they automatically think does it meet the criteria? If so, then get the referral in brokers can help educate the clients about the benefits and how to get the most out of it. And from the examples and the case studies, you've both showed, you can see why this is such an important asset for brokers. And what's the best way for them to get in touch with your team to find out a little bit more about prs. And I'd say probably in the first instance, contact your local travelers, underwriters or condemn the country and all that stuff. I myself are both equally happy to chat to you about it. And you can find both of us on LinkedIn.  

Mia Wallace [00:08:59]  

Brilliant.Thank you very much, Alexa, and thanks to you and Stephanie for taking the time to walk us through this fascinating corner of the insurance market today.  

Alexa Johnson [00:09:07] Thank you.  

Stephanie Przybylski [00:09:08] Thank you. You're very welcome.  

Mia Wallace [00:09:10] So much great, practical and actionable advice there and I would certainly advise any brokers listening to get in touch with Alexa or Steph at their earliest possible convenience. And thank you also to everybody for tuning in, and I look forward to welcome you next time here on IB talk. 

Narrator [00:09:28] Thank you for listening to this episode of IB UK Talk. You can listen to the latest episodes on Apple, Spotify, Amazon and all major listening channels. Just search for IB Talk.