Partners Life throws “serious funding” into service recovery

Speaking at an adviser webinar, CEO Michael Weston said Partners Life will be investing into products, as well as the claims experience and data analytics. COO Daniel Walker said the company has “been to some dark places in terms of service” for medical claims in particular, but is “absolutely treating it as a priority.”

Walker noted that the last month was the highest for processed payments, and that’s meant that the backlog of invoice reimbursements has reduced by 40%.

“At our worst, we were as many as 21 days behind,” Walker said. “We’re currently at 7, and we’re making progress as we go. We’re acknowledging to the advisers that we’re not necessarily where we want to be still, but we’ve made really significant progress and will continue to do so.”

Walker also acknowledged that the company struggled with underwriting and new business services in the last year, partly due to an “underwriting churn merry-go-round” that saw underwriters switching companies, as well as operational structures that didn’t align with distribution segmentation.

Partners Life has since brought in 12 new trainee underwriters, and is aiming to develop closer relationships between advisers and key account managers.

Notably, Walker mentioned that Partners Life will also be going to a fully digital new business application process in the “not too distant future.”

Early AI testing looking promising

There have also been proof of concepts developed around AI and summarisation of medical notes. The early results are looking promising, with a PMAR that might usually take 45 minutes to assess now taking around 10 minutes. Walker says there has also been testing of obtaining medical notes in near real-time, with over 100 requests going through.

“The average time to get that PMAR back is 17 seconds, whereas today it’s about 4 days, plus another 4 days sitting in an underwriting queue,” he explained.

“Although we’re in the early stages, you can see how transformative some of this work will be.”

There are also plans to invest into AI in the claims space.

Life insurers are starting to throw more resources into AI development overall. AIA chief customer officer Maddie Sherlock recently told GRTV that AIA is looking to establish an AI team, as customer expectations are changing quickly.

Through research conducted with Canstar, AIA found that customers now expect resolution within 24 hours - previously, that figure was 3-5 days.

“AI is moving incredibly quickly,” Sherlock said. Things like transcripts and summarisations are all being automated, and the aim is for contact centres to be freed up to be able to answer more calls.