I refer to the article entitled "We don't trust insurers" (St 8
Aug 2002).
It reported that taxi driver Chang Ting Fook had a bad experience with NTUC
Income on his claim for expensive surgery ten years ago. He and his wife have
both opted out of ElderShield because he does not trust insurance companies to
pay up when the time comes.
I am sorry to learn about Mr Chang's bad experience. I will look into the
past record to see if we had dealt with his claim correctly at that time.
NTUC Income has a guiding principle to settle claims promptly and fairly.
We settle about 500 claims and pays out an average of $2.3 million every working
day. These are claims for life, accident, health, motor, travel and other insurances.
About 97% of our claims are paid within 7 days. Our aim is to settle all claims
from our policyholders within 14 days.
We aim to pay all legitimate claims without any hassle to the claimants. In
recent years, we have simplified the documentary requirements and procedures
that are required to process these claims. We now have a claim service centre
to assist our claimants. This centre is able to accept a claim report made by
telephone.
We do have some difficulty in settling claims for pre-existing and other conditions
that are excluded under the insurance policy. For these cases, we explain the
limitation to the claimant. We have a practice to offer ex-gratia payment to
cover the uninsured loss, if it is fair to do so.
Generally, our claimants have found our approach to be fair. They have consistently
given us a high score of 96.5% in the regular satisfaction survey.
We adopt a three level process to deal with difficult claims. We empower our
claim officer to settle most claims at the first level and try to achieve a satisfactory
settlement with the claimant. A small percentage of claims are referred to management
to handle at the second level. If there is still a dispute, we will get the claimant's
agreement to refer the claim for a decision by an independent external party,
such as the Insurance Ombudsman Bureau.
We want our claimants to feel that we have been fair in our handling of their
claims. We will ensure that all legitimate claims are settled promptly and fairly.
This is the real value and purpose of insurance.
Email this page
Print this page
