The Association of Medical Insurers and Intermediaries (AMII) has released the first details and view of its training and education platform for the private medical insurance (PMI) market.
The organisation is building an e-learning platform with support from its compliance partner UKGI Compliance that will enable learning remotely on a range of topics across the whole sector.
The system is designed to complement anybody who has taken part in CII certification or is currently on that journey with classroom learning also planned to be available.
Executive committee member and Vitality key accounts director Liam Kennedy (pictured) has been leading the year-long project and presented a first look at the AMII Academy at the body’s spring summit.
Each participant will have a dashboard as part of their personal portal allowing access to modules covering specific subjects.
Candidates and their employers will be able to track utilisation of modules, what modules need to be completed, pass rates, and their target progress.
“So if you’ve got a deadline for learning you can see how they’re performing and the various modules available,” Kennedy said.
“This is typically aimed at audiences that are brand new to market,” Kennedy continued.
“Just imagine that tomorrow you recruit somebody at the age of 19 – that’s the standard we want to go to and how do we ensure good, consistent training?
“The aim is definitely to drive more common, consistent standards of professionalism and advice that in turn, ensures much better customer outcomes.”
The first part of the curriculum is focused on six key subject areas:
- An introduction to PMI in the UK
- An overview of the health insurance market including cash plans, tax and international PMI
- The context of UK and healthcare in general
- Product design
- How PMI is administered and underwritten
- The role of the UK PMI intermediary including law, insurance premium tax and regulations.
Further pillars will be added including looking at the principles of risk assessment, underwriting, understanding the claims function and the Consumer Duty.
‘Set industry standards’
“Strategic training provides the framework for us to basically set the standards for the industry going forward, driving the professionalism,” Kennedy added.
“We know we exist today in a very, very complex, regulated environment, so strategic training will help improve compliance.
“But above anything else, was the fact around how do we ensure better customer outcomes?
“And I believe that sits with us: it sits with the insurers, it sits with the advisers, about ensuring we provide the very best professional advice for our customers.”