Lack of E-Trading Hinders PMI Business

17 August 2009,

A quick temperature-check of broker opinion at this year’s AMII conference by Groupama Healthcare has revealed that most broker delegates (79%) felt that e-trading is lagging behind the general insurance sector. Furthermore, almost a third (29%) believed this is ‘to a great extent’. The news comes as Groupama Healthcare’s Alistair Sclare renews his calls for claims sharing in the SME PMI market.

"It will be difficult for the industry to really make the most of e-trading until we are on a level playing field in terms of claims data" explains Alistair Sclare, Director of Healthcare, Groupama Insurances. "While on the one hand we have the prospect of an online trading solution through electronic billing specialist Healthcode, the full potential to save on costly administration and deliver the best possible quotations to brokers quickly and accurately will not be realised until the two dominant players stop withholding risk information from customers and their brokers. Healthcode will be an excellent first step, but we need to catch up with the rest of the insurance market as fast as we can."

In the same ‘mini-survey’, a quarter of broker delegates said policyholders were unaware that new conditions could be excluded from a PMI policy if it is stopped and re-instated at a later date. Sclare adds, "Traditionally, after a break in cover of 30 days, a PMI scheme is re-underwritten. It’s really something businesses should try to avoid if at all possible as it means shopping around for new cover and potentially excluding conditions which may have emerged since the last time the policy was underwritten. CoverBreak by Groupama Healthcare removes that restriction allowing businesses to take a 12 month break and come back, reinstating the policy with the same medical underwriting terms they had."

More positive news from the broker feedback was that rather than cut PMI, businesses are looking at other areas to cut costs during the economic downturn. Well over half (66%) of respondents said they were aware of businesses cutting back on employee benefits, rather than cutting PMI cover.

"It’s certainly encouraging to note that most businesses understand the value of PMI and are looking for alternative ways to cut costs during these tough times.”: added Alistair Sclare. “But we need to do our bit too by being as efficient as possible to help manage costs. Whilst some progress is being made with systems such as our own (EasyAdmin by Groupama Healthcare) we’re never going to catch up with the general insurance sector on e-trading until all insurers agree to share claims information.”

Ends
August 2009