Newsletter June 2021, Simon Downing
Having dealt with hundreds, if not thousands of renewals for medical indemnity insurance, one area that seems to confuse is ‘what does a broker actually do?’ I hope to illuminate the sometimes murky depths of the insurance industry and allow you to have greater faith in the often misunderstood insurance broker role.
As your independent insurance broker, we are here to assist you in making an informed decision when arranging your medical indemnity insurance. We are not another department of the insurer, we are independent and act on your behalf, sometimes providing added benefits to sit alongside or dovetail with your medical indemnity insurance. We negotiate with different insurers to obtain the best terms we can for you, not for the insurer, pushing for concessions where we feel they should be given. This has been highlighted by the recent COVID-19 pandemic hitting private practice hard, with brokers being the first to apply the pressure on insurers and recommending courses of action to assist policyholders.
We monitor the insurers we recommend in terms of flexibility, coverage, performance, claims handling and pricing. This can then be fed back to insurers so they up their game, because ultimately if they do not meet our expectations then we do not recommend them to you. The monitoring does not stop with the insurers, we keep track of developments within your field of expertise and rely on feedback from members to know where your medical indemnity policy needs to adapt.
An excellent example of why OTSIS is such a good member organisation, feeding back members experiences to their broker to work with insurers on maintaining comprehensive coverage for all members.
When it is your time to discuss your renewal or advise on changes remember:
- Co-operation is key, greater co-operation with your OTSIS broker, can only result in a better outcome for you. Information is key when it comes to reassuring an underwriter that you are a good risk for them to take on or renew.
- As your broker we are here to do the leg work for you. You may think, I am happy to do it myself, but why disregard the vast experience you can tap in to and benefit from in your insurance broker.
- Transferring to us, as the new OTSIS broker, does not change your insurer or alter any matters ongoing. You are changing the people who assist with your policy, not the policy itself.
- Do not pass your renewal around the market. There is a finite number of insurers that can provide good medical indemnity insurance and when they see the same quote request from multiple brokers, there is not much incentive to be competitive, knowing they will likely pick it up with one of them.
- As your broker we advise you, helping with cover queries and assisting in making claims notifications.
- If you have any questions just ask us, that is exactly what we are here for.
In the end, we are here to perform a role for you as our client, which is to advise you, be instructed and then provide continued assistance throughout your policy lifecycle. Put your trust in us and we aim to not let you down.