Standard Life to Loose Jobs

There are mixed reports as to how much the recession has affected private medical insurance companies. However Standard Life Healthcare announced last month that they have to loose another 60 employees. The company line is that the changes are designed to improve efficiency in the business but how will it affect Standard Life Healthcare customers?

In April this year they cut customer service and back office jobs as part of the restructuring of the marketing function.

There are different reports as to the impact the recession is having on the medical insurance sector but at an industry conference Standard Life Healthcare's director Laurent Pochat-Cottilloux said that the private health insurance business could as a whole could loose 650,000 jobs by the end of 2012 unless the economy improved and the sector restructured their offerings.

A spokesperson for the company said that the job losses were not just because of the recession:

'All changes are the result of improved operational efficiencies and will not impact on service levels.'

What about the customer? Will claims take longer to process?

Currently in many companies the customer is not King as he once used to be in the UK. Health Insurance Awards are given out every year by Health Insurance Magazine. Winners of the customer services awards last year were BCWA followed by runners-up, Bupa and Norwich Union Healthcare. These companies are recognised as providing excellent customer services.

Standard Life Healthcare were the winners of the best customer service category for five years running previous to this (2002-2007). Will they be able to win again with their new 'operational efficiencies?'

The Standard Life Healthcare job cuts follow similar propositions in AXA PPP Healthcare were health cover staff members have been offered the choice of taking a paycut, losing members of staff or missing out on bonuses. It remains to be seen whether other health insurance companies will announce more job loses before we see an upturn in economic recovery and whether this will have an effect on the level of service that customers receive.