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As you will be aware, New Zealand is moving to a Level Four Covid-19 response from 11:59pm today (Wednesday 25 March).
Insurance is considered an essential service and Asteron Life will continue to operate throughout the government-imposed restriction period. Our people are well equipped to continue to operate during the four-week shut-down period, although we have some important updates below on some process changes.
All teams working from home
Asteron Life is well equipped to work remotely, with many team members already working flexibly on a regular basis. We recently took the precaution of increasing this capability, which means most of our people are now working from home. This includes our front-line Claims, Sales and Service, Distribution and Underwriting teams.
Our teams are continuing to process claims, enquiries and underwriting requests. You may experience delays as we transition to our new way of working. Like all of New Zealand, we are experiencing some issues with calls connecting properly due to heavy traffic on mobile networks as more businesses work from home. You may experience a delay of up to 10 seconds as your call is connecting but please hold to enable the team to answer your enquiry. We appreciate your patience and understanding as teams transition into full remote working and assure you they are committed to responding to your requests in a timely and professional manner.
What this means for Claims
While we are continuing to process claims as usual, there will be a different way of working for some aspects. We remain committed to ensuring customers are supported during this time. The health and safety of customers, partners, and our team remains our number one priority.
We are working with our providers on their availability to provide continued rehabilitation and assessment services via video conference. For some providers this won’t be possible, such as physiotherapy and exercise physicians, but where our providers are able, we will continue to support our customers with their recoveries. This may mean some customers in the middle of rehabilitation programs may need to put these on hold.
What this means for Underwriting
Our tele-interviewing service will continue uninterrupted until further notice. There are times available to book in the AsteronConnect application process.
Medscreen has confirmed it has reviewed its paramedical nursing service. Nurses will no longer be able to visit clients in their homes or workplace. GPs will be limiting patient visits and contact. Labtests is also shutting a number of collection centres around the country so applicants will not be able to visit a centre to have their insurance related blood work taken during this time.
While we expect Personal Medical Attendant Reports to still be available via Konnect, we could still face some delays depending on how GPs prioritise insurance requests. During the next four weeks we will not be raising requirements for medicals and bloods through either Medscreen or GPs until the alert levels have dropped and ‘non-essential services’ return to normal. This means delays are to be expected if medicals and/or bloods are required.
Where medical assessments or blood tests are required for non-medical limits only, underwriters will provide the option of reducing cover to avoid triggering non-medical limits. Where this option is used the client will be able to increase their cover back to the original level of benefit requested within 12 months of the application date with only a Declaration of Continued Good Health and normal underwriting requirements for the additional cover.
Redundancy Cover
Due to the unknown economic impacts of Covid-19 on New Zealand, Asteron Life is currently unable to prudently assess the risk of redundancy benefit applications. We have considered all approaches to keep this benefit available for your clients, but can no longer offer redundancy cover to any new business nor add any increases to existing benefits.
This change is effective immediately and includes any benefits that are in the process of being underwritten. We will review our position in due course as the situation becomes clearer. There is no impact to existing redundancy benefits held by your clients. These benefits are available to be claimed on by anyone who is made redundant as a result of Covid-19, where all cover conditions are met.
Options for customers
Please note that Asteron Life has the following options available for customers who have changing financial circumstances.
Options under Lump Sum Covers include
Options under Disability Income Covers:
There are some limitations on cover associated with some benefits, for example, no claim can be made at any time for a condition which first arises while there is a premium and cover suspension in place.
Our policy wordings include other options such as Family Assist, Dependant Relative and Overseas Assist and others, which customers may find useful at this time. If your client’s circumstances fall outside the above options, please talk to your BDM about how we can help.
Get in touch
This situation is unprecedented. We would like to thank you for your patience as we continue to work through what this means for Asteron Life and our customers. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with your Business Development Manager if you have any questions or concerns, or call the Adviser Support line on 0800 808 106.
Kind regards,
Graham Hill
Executive Manager
Life Distribution
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