Lessons for NDIS in national claims model
Media Release 16th May 2012
Suncorp’s national approach to managing personal injury claims provides valuable lessons for the proposed National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and National Injury Insurance Scheme (NIIS).
Speaking at the recent Traumatic Injury and Disability Insurance Summit, Suncorp’s Executive General Manager Statutory Claims, Paul Smeaton, outlined the advantages of operating as a national personal injury claims manager.
“Since Suncorp Commercial Insurance brought together our workers compensation and CTP operations into one Statutory division last year, we’ve realised a number of benefits,” said Mr Smeaton.
“Suncorp is able to utilise the complexity and nuances of the various state-based personal injury schemes to drive national best-practice in claims management.
“Each scheme measures performance and quality of outcomes slightly differently, so we have taken the highest benchmarks from each to create a national quality assurance program that lifts the performance for all schemes.
“We also facilitate the sharing of ideas and new techniques between schemes, leveraging off what drives success in one scheme to improve others – particularly around injury management and case management.
Managing personal injury claims is complex, requiring a great deal of direct contact and interaction with a number of stakeholders. Suncorp has implemented improvements that allow claims advisors to do their job more effectively.
“The introduction of centralised administration has freed up claims advisors to focus on early intervention and tailored case management in order to get the best outcome for the injured person,” said Mr Smeaton.
“At an operational level, having a single claims management platform and a single data warehouse maximises the scale advantages Suncorp is able to achieve as Australia’s largest personal injury insurer.
“The NDIS and NIIS will face a number of challenges as they are implemented, so it’s important that the experience of insurers like Suncorp is utilised for the benefit of the scheme and the people it’s designed to help.”
Background:
The summit on 11 May 2012 in Sydney was the second in the series of Traumatic Injury & Disability Summits hosted by Suncorp in conjunction with PwC. The first summit on 17 February in Melbourne focused on the business case for an NDIS and NIIS.
More information is available at: www.traumaticinjurydisabilitysummit.com.au
ENDS
For further information contact:
Rob White
External Communications Manager
Commercial Insurance
Suncorp
Ph. 02 8121 0467
Mob. 0411 881 887
Jake Krausmann
Senior Communications Advisor
Commercial Insurance
Suncorp
Ph. 02 8121 0469
Mob. 0411 409 074
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