Aviva is reviewing its growth plans for 2023 and 2024 and has apologised to private medical insurance (PMI) customers as it continues to tackle the issue of long waiting times for its call centres, Health & Protection can reveal.
Its solution to the issue includes includes introducing triage call back services into claims teams, hiring more claims handlers and expanding its digital approval process.
In a presentation sent to advisers last week and seen by Health & Protection, Aviva acknowledged its call volumes were at a record high and had been influenced by a range of factors including its bigger customer base making more claims and more multiple-condition claims.
It added that one in three members were now making claims instead of one in four and that the NHS crisis and Cigna’s departure had also exacerbated the situation.
An Aviva spokesperson told Health & Protection: “We’re sorry that PMI customers are experiencing longer phone wait times than usual due to the unprecedented levels of demand we are experiencing.”
The main reason identified by Aviva for the long waiting times is an increase in demand.
“We are seeing a 25% increase in claims being made compared to normal levels, with a high demand for PMI cover creating a spike in claims from new customers.
“In the last year we have provided PMI cover to 123,000 more people in the UK,” the Aviva spokesperson said.
In its annual results for 2022, the insurer posted a significant uptick in health insurance business.
In the presentation sent to intermediaries last week seen by Health & Protection, Aviva recognised that “wait times continue to be longer than normal”.
According to the presentation, one of the solutions identified might be to adjust growth plans.
“We are reviewing our growth plans for the remainder of 2023 and into 2024 to ensure members are not further impacted,” Aviva said.
Waiting times
The email was sent at a time when an increasing number of PMI customers have been complaining to their brokers about the lengthy wait times that they face when trying to make a claim with a range of insurers, post-Covid.
Brokers told Health & Protection that customers could endure wait times as long as 90 minutes and even longer in some cases. And the issue was making some customers question why service levels were so poor.
Aviva recognised that wait times were longer for their call centre, though the average wait time could be a lot lower.
“The length of wait times can fluctuate on a weekly basis and were an average of 15 to 20 minutes throughout May,” Aviva said in its presentation.
The issue seems to have been intensified by the pandemic.
The Aviva email to intermediaries noted that “call volumes are now at a record high, up more than 25% compared to pre-Covid levels.”
But another issue is conditions at the NHS, where more than 7.3 million people are on the NHS England waiting list for treatment.
“The current issues within the NHS have driven an increased take up of PMI schemes, especially for consumers and SMEs,” Aviva said.
“As a result of this, we have seen a 25% increase in first year claims for these schemes.”
Other reasons for long waiting times included an increase in members adding dependents, and annual member usage increasing from one in four to one in three.
Additional factors have also included members having two or three conditions to claim for, and where there have been calls for help with alternatives to the NHS, even if PMI does not cover it.
Not all reasons for the increased call volumes were linked to Covid, however.
“Cigna has pulled out of the market, so their clients have had to move to other providers,” Aviva said.
And finally, ”members now feel safer going back into hospitals post-Covid.”
Increased recruitment
But outside of increased demand, another problem is supply, with not enough customer service agents on hand to take calls.
The Aviva spokesperson told Health & Protection: “We are taking action to improve the service for customers as quickly as we can, including recruitment and further improvement of digital services.”
The presentation to intermediaries went into greater detail about its recruitment strategy.
“Increased recruitment has helped with 72 new claims advisers joining so far this year,” Aviva said.
Aviva plans to continue that policy.
“Recruitment of claims advisers will continue with a new group of 18 joining every six weeks – this is the plan up to the end of 2024.“
But that will not necessarily be a quick fix, due to training times.
“Training takes approximately six months so we expect to see significant improvement over the coming months,” Aviva said.
Digital services
Aviva also wants to see more people use its digital services.
“Our digital services are fully available and customers can submit and update claims via MyAviva as well as view invoices,” the spokesperson said.
“Customers can also use our virtual assistant to enquire about their policy.”
In the presentation, Aviva said it planned several digital enhancements, some of which are already in place.
Starting next month, Aviva will be making amendments to its online claim form, which it says will mean first point resolution will increase from 63% to 95%.
And in October, Aviva said an enhanced telephony system will be introduced.
“Service when through to a claims adviser continues to be on an excellent standard, first contact resolution remains high,” Aviva said.
“There are currently over 5,000 live chats per month, with 92% fully resolved on first chat,” it added.