Tributes are being made to Bill Poynton, one of the “founding fathers” of the Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries (AMII), who has passed away.
Leading the tributes, Michael Payne, general secretary of the trade body – now the Association of Medical Insurers & Intermediaries – shared the news “with great sadness”.
Over a career that spanned several decades, Poynton (pictured) first began professional life at Bupa, before setting up independent healthcaree intermediary Health Care Plus and going into partnership with Sue Smith.
He then wanted to set up AMII, to create a “voice” for smaller specialist healthcare intermediaries, in 1998.
Then, a new voluntary self-regulation framework for general insurance – in the form of GISC (The General Insurance Standards Council) – caused “great concern” to Poynton and a number of others involved in the healthcare industry at the time.
Payne said: “Health insurance was going to be catergorised by GISC as a ‘high risk’ product. It was out of that concern AMII was born as the Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries with 22 members.
“Over many months Bill, on behalf of AMII membership, led discussions with GISC and put forward the case that PMI should be ‘medium risk’, which they duly accepted when formalising the subsequent regulations.”
In 2005, GISC became part of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) as a formal regulator, now the FCA.
Payne said: “Our thoughts are with the family, friends and ex-colleagues of Bill at this sad time.”