Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Reply to Dr Lim Boon Hee in Today Paper

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Reply to Dr Lim Boon Hee in Today Paper

Dr Lim Boon Hee asked, "did NTUC Income bite off more than it can chew"?

The frank answer is "yes". We are suffering from temporary indigestion. But, it is not serious. We hope to be able to recover from it fully by October.

When we tendered for the Medishield Plus scheme, we wanted to offer to the 300,000 members a better package that gives about higher coverage at a reduced premium. Our offer was the most attractive. We were given the entire portfolio of 300,000 members.

We made the best estimate of the likely work load based on our experience with 500,000 Incomeshield policyholders that are insured with us, and with the data provided by the Ministry of Health.

The actual volume of claims was higher than expected. This is due to the difference in the way of handling the claims through the integrated system. We have to change the computer system to deal with the higher situation and new way of processing. It takes time to design and implement the changes. There were other integation issues as well.

The matter was aggravated in June, when we introduced the Enhanced Incomeshield plan to meet with the many requests from our existing policyholders. We offered a two month period for upgrading of this plan. We received 60,000 requests. It was not possible for us to cope with this unexpected volume, as many policyholders rushed in to beat the deadline.

We have now decided to offer the upgrading to the remaining policyholders to take effect on the next renewal of their insurance plan. All existing policyholders will be given an additional opportunity for the upgrading within a 12 months period. The terms of the upgrading will also be clearly explained in the FAQ that will accompany the renewal notice.

We apologise to our many policyholders who were affected by our backlog. We plan to sort out this matter by October.

4 comments:

Tan Kin Lian said...: This gentlemen, called Truth Seeker, is always being negative. He feels safe about making unjustified criticism in the cloak of anomymity.; August 19, 2006 2:30 PM
Victor Foo said...: Please allow me to correct your statement.

I think in the cyberspace, responsible writer(s) will choose to be known whereas irresponsible and scrupulous writer(s) will opt for annoynomous instead. Not everyone inthe cyberspace is choose to be annoynomous. Not me. Not James Ong. Not Freddy. At least.; August 20, 2006 11:24 AM
The Thought of Life said...: I think people choose to be anonymous for various reasons. But it is understandable that Mr. Tan's blog here is not purely to educate people, but also serves as a kind of promotional tool for NTUC Income. So as critical readers, we should always remember that fact.; August 20, 2006 3:15 PM
Sienna said...: Dear Mr Tan

As someone who had benefitted from Income's service over the past years, please allow me to post some comments. I have generally been happy but would like to suggest the following:

1. Provide letters of guarantees to policyholders of Incomeshield Plus Rider's Plan P for admission to private hospitals. To prevent an opening of floodgates, you can specify the common private hospitals namely East Shore, Gleneagles, Mt Elizabeth, Mt Alvernia, Thomson Medical and Raffles Hospital. I compare Incomeshield Plus Rider to say, Aviva's Ideal Medical which provides a letter of guarantee. Aviva's is of course more expensive where premiums are concerned, but there are many who would not mind paying more for more. With a letter of guarantee provided, the insistence on claims being settled quickly would subside. Having said this, let me share with you that at my recent hospitalization in Changi General Hospital, I had to pay an upfront deposit of $1200 because the system had not captured my renewal of the policy. A letter of guarantee was eventually provided, but it was too late. I am optimistic of course that INCOME would move away from the current chaos in due course, but I hope your good office would also ensure that policyholders who are inconvenienced as such have their claims settled as soon as possible.

2. Another point I wish to make is on upgrading from Plan Advantage to Plan Preferred. When I took up Incomeshield in 1996, Plan A was the highest plan and covered both private & public hospitals. Now that Plan P is in force, the Plan A members have to pay a pro-ration factor for private hospitals. We were not informed of this, and it was only during my casual reading of your website that I discovered this. I had earlier this year in April or May 2006 requested to be upgraded to Plan Preferred. A form was submitted NTUC's Branch in Woodlands and this was collected by a male customer service officer. In spite of repeated emails asking for the status of my request, I have still not received any replies. It was indeed disappointing.

I must be candid and tell you that I was seriously considering other insurance companies - but I also remember the fact that as a co-operative, I would probably stand to benefit because you would have the interests of your members at heart. I also considered the fact that I had always considered INCOME's service as superior, and am happy with it and trust that you can deal with the "indigestion" even though I still have to keep prompting your staff to ensure that my claims are being looked into. I hope you will not disappoint me.

I really hope to see a smooth resolution of the challenges you are currently facing, and I am confident that you would be able to resolve them.

Regards,
(as a responsible writer, I would rather not go on the basis of anonymity but because this is a blog and my name is rather unique - probably the only one in Singapore thus far - I'd rather not be easily identified by people I know. However I trust it would suffice that I give my Incomeshield Policy No? If you'd like to contact me, you can check my details. (Incomeshield Policy Number 90047237). Cheers!; August 20, 2006 3:42 PM