9. Stephanie Phillips, head of group insurance, AIA Australia, where she has recently worked on a project to streamline its claims process 10. Scot Quigley, claims and complaints officer, Cbus, where he has dealt with all matters pertaining to claims since he arrived in September 2006 11. Michael Rooney, general manager administration & compliance, Media Super, where he is not actually part of the insurance claims committee, but where he is delegated authority to make rulings on member complaints levelled against committee decisions 12. Richard Weatherhead, director, Rice Warner Actuaries, where his work with underwriting and claims management teams has included new underwriting workflow systems, and the provision of statistical support to claims managers on potential claims ‘hot spots’ (Richard joined the discussion by teleconference) Michael Bailey: Damien, you’ve said that funds and insurers need to get over the ‘fear factor’ around claims, and embrace them as a way of improving their member experience and sharpening their competitive edge. Damien Mu: At AIA we have a slogan; ‘It’s all about claims’, and that’s substantiated when you look at your customer research, your satisfaction levels of what you’re doing well and what you need to be doing well.

I think we’ve done some good things along the way in the industry but you know, when you start to lift the bonnet up and look underneath at the claims process, there’s so many different parts that a lot of people quickly put it back down. We need to take away some of that fear. It’s not just a technology solution that’s going to deliver you that end-to-end, fundamental shift that we’re looking for to make it easier for members. While we might draw distinctions between other insurance industries, the difference for us is that we’re actually dealing with people’s lives. Michael Bailey: We’re pleased to have two HOSTPLUS representatives here with us today, Kelly Cantwell and Colin Cassidy, who’ve recently wowed the industry with their insourcing of claims management. Guys, what inspired you to take that step? What was it you wanted to see happen in claims management that you think might be better done by insourcing?

Kelly Cantwell: We in-sourced our call centre a few years ago as well. The fund made a strategic decision that we wanted to own the relationship with our members and employers, and following that, it made sense to also own that part of the relationship which is probably taking place at the worst time of people’s lives – when they are making a claim. It’s critical that we had our insurer on board. So we didn’t just sit in a room by ourselves and build a new process. The process is completely different to what we had, but we did it with our insurer, ING, so it’s a partnership approach, which has just been an amazing journey. We only in-sourced on 1 August, so our learning curve is quite steep and we’re operating in two worlds. We’re operating in the old world that the administrator had, and now we’re seeing files in our new world with our new application forms and new systems and new relationships.