As part of an on-going effort to tackle Ireland's "compo- culture" Hibernian insurance today launched two new initiatives to tackle the high cost of insurance claims and to ensure that legitimate claims are processed smoothly.
As part of an on-going effort to tackle Ireland's "compo- culture" Hibernian insurance today launched two new initiatives to tackle the high cost of insurance claims and to ensure that legitimate claims are processed smoothly.
As part of an on-going effort to tackle Ireland's "compo-culture" Hibernian insurance today launched two new initiatives to tackle the high cost of insurance claims and to ensure that legitimate claims are processed smoothly.
- Hibernian Accident Pack and Hibernian AccidentLine 24-hour telephone service (1850 666 888), and
- Hibernian Back on Your Feet - a new rehabilitation and treatment service
Following from the successful launch last year of RiskAsyst™, the Hibernian programme that involves businesses in minimising their own risk, Hibernian has gone one step further and launched Accident Pack. The key message is "keep us in the picture to reduce your premium".
The Accident Pack is specifically designed for Hibernian small business and fleet customers and contains a camera, replacement film, user guide, first aid advice, an accident report form and a freepost reply envelope. The simple concept is based on the fact that a picture speaks a thousand words and if photographs are taken of an accident scene or the property damage, liability can be quickly established and any claim can be processed efficiently.
Thus the cost of completing the claim's process is reduced and customer service is improved*.
The Accident Pack also highlights Hibernian's new AccidentLine service, a 24-hours, seven days a week telephone service to help and advise Hibernian customers on all motor and property claims.
Hibernian is planning on extending the Accident Pack concept to its private motor customers and is currently working on a design, based on the same principles as the Accident Pack for business, which would ideally be kept in a car glove compartment.
The innovative rehabilitation programme Back on Your Feet, is designed to help those injured in workplace accidents, often company employees, get back on their feet as quickly as possible.
The key to successful rehabilitation is early treatment, particularly treatment in the first six weeks. However, both public and private health waiting lists often mean that early treatment is not obtained**. The Back on your Feet initiative is specifically aimed at fast-tracking the recovery and treatment of injured persons, by giving them immediate access to independent, professional medical and physiotherapy care.
The services included in the rehabilitation and treatment programme are; immediate assessment of the injury and counselling where appropriate, treatment and physiotherapy, independent medical examinations, x-rays, MRI scans if necessary, post-acute phase rehabilitation assessment and on-going case management.
Hibernian's director of claims, Michael Garvey, said: "Personal injury claims cost the insurance industry in Ireland in excess of €1.3billion annually. Ireland's increasing compensation culture has tended to remove the focus of all concerned from the central issue of the injured persons’ return to health and speedy payment of legitimate claims. With both of these new initiatives; Accident Pack/AccidentLine and Back on Your Feet, we believe that Hibernian is taking a significant step in the direction of reducing the cost of claims in Ireland."
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* For further information on the Accident Pack, small business owners should contact their broker or Barry O'Dwyer at Hibernian on 021 452 7428.
** A recent report from one of Dublin's top hospitals has shown that the average waiting time for outpatient physiotherapy care has increased from nine weeks in 2000 to 14 weeks in 2001. Statistics show that 75% of injured workers who have been away from the workplace for more than 12 months, never return to productive employment. A report on hospital waiting lists, by Prof Ray Kinsella, director of the Centre of Insurance Studies in UCD, identifies serious problems in outpatient departments, which hold patients in a "waiting-list loop" keeping them returning again and again because proper diagnostics and senior personnel are unavailable. Once listed as waiting, patients categorised as "routine" are "left waiting for years, without realistic expectation of treatment".
Press contact:
Kela O’Riordan,
01 617 8164, 086 606 8842,
kela.oriordan@hibernian.ie
Notes to editors:
- Hibernian is part of the Aviva plc the fifth largest insurance group in Europe, and seventh globally (based on gross worldwide premia)
- Hibernian is Ireland’s largest composite insurer, ranked first for general insurance and top five for life and pensions
- A photograph is available by ISDN
- Hibernian news releases are also available on www.hibernian.ie.