The Cancer Conversation
With cancer estimated to claim the lives of more than 47,753 Australians this year and costing the nation more than $4.8 billion per year in direct health system costs, TAL has decided to equip its financial advisers with the knowledge to better understand cancer and its effects through a new education course. Industry Moves speaks with TAL's GM for Health Services, Dr. Sally Phillips, and GM for Retail Distribution, Niall McConville, who tell us more about the desired outcomes of the course, how it came about and share some of the feedback from participants so far.
Can you tell us about the impetus to start up TAL's new education course to help financial advisers better understand cancer?
Dr. Sally Phillips: The cancer course was introduced to TAL Risk Academy this year as part of TAL's wider health strategy, which involves sharing TAL's health expertise and medical best practice with our adviser partners. Cancer is the largest category of claims for TAL and costs Australia more than $4.8 billion per year in direct health system costs. There is value in a financial adviser helping people through their cancer journey. We want to lead the industry in understanding medical conditions such as cancer, and one way we are doing this is by equipping our adviser partners with the knowledge and tools they need to get the best outcomes for clients that are at risk of, or faced with, cancer.
Niall McConville: TAL Risk Academy is an industry-leading education program that we developed to provide accredited training solutions for advisers. It provides advisers with a range of options including classroom, face-to-face learning, webinars and on-demand learning that can be completed any time. TAL Risk Academy helps financial advisers to grow their skills and their businesses, improves professional standards across the industry and provides overall better outcomes for customers.
Is there a follow up process for those who complete the webinar session if they'd like to know more information?
Niall McConville: Advisers who complete the webinar session can contact TAL Risk Academy with any follow up questions they might have. We also encourage advisers to provide us with their feedback on the course so we can keep improving our learning content.
In what ways does the course help advisers to offer emotional support to their clients?
Dr. Sally Phillips: During the course, we discuss some of the support mechanisms that TAL provides for clients on claim for cancer, such as information booklets to help them understand their situation and support their return to health. This includes tips on looking after clients' physical, mental and emotional health, which are important to consider when dealing with cancer conditions.
You've said that you have already received some positive feedback from the course, what have advisers found to be the most beneficial aspect of the training?
Niall McConville: Most of the feedback from advisers has been around the confidence the course gives them in understanding the different types of cancer, which will enable them to talk to insurers about it with more authority when it arises in the form of a client claim. We also provided advisers with references they can use to quantify the financial impact of cancer with their clients, which advisers found useful.
The average rating for the course to date has been 4.66 out of 5.
...and how many advisers have become CPD accredited so far?
Niall McConville: We had more than 130 advisers take part in the course - so far one third have received CPD accreditation.
...and could you see this course extending into education around other medical conditions?
Niall McConville: We are developing further courses on medical conditions to be run by TAL's Health Services team - adviser feedback has shown this complements the other learning areas within TAL Risk Academy. Advisers play a significant role in the facilitation of claims so having an understanding of different medical conditions and tools to help support claimants is critical.
Dr. Sally Phillips: TAL's Health Services team drives the company's wider health strategy, which aims to expand TAL's ability to understand, manage and support the mental, physical and financial health of its people and its customers. The Health Services team comprises subject matter experts that reflect the major causes of claims that TAL experiences. This includes a Head of Mental Health, Chief Medical Officer, Head of Health Claims and Underwriting Financial Risk, and musculoskeletal, chronic disease and recovery managers.
With cancer taking up the largest portion of claims, what sits in second and third place?
Dr. Sally Phillips: In the 2016 financial year we paid $1.4 billion in claims to more than 23,000 Australians and their families. Cancer was the most common reason for making a claim (20% of all the claims we paid), followed by musculoskeletal & connective tissue diseases (17%) and injuries & fractures (16%). All of our claims details can be found here.
Has TAL run a course like this before and if so, what was the uptake amongst your adviser partners?
Niall McConville: This is the second course we've run that has specifically focused on a type of medical condition - we ran a similar session on Heart Conditions earlier in the year. We received close to double the level of attendees for this session showing a significant uplift.
About Dr. Sally Phillips:
About Niall McConville:
