AMII’s mixed prognosis

With 15 corporate members already on board paying fees on a sliding scale of between £5,000 and £15,000 a year, and with others expected to follow suit, the association is now on a much sounder financial footing, and is in a position to enable the industry to work with one voice to improve standards.

AMII vice-chair Stuart Scullion, who is managing director of national specialist intermediary PHP, said: “The money they are paying in fees is broadly similar to what they were paying for tables and stands at the annual summit but, whereas in the past we were always out with a begging bowl trying to get them to take stands, now we can plan with certainty.

“The corporate members include cash plan providers and international private medical insurance providers, reflecting our desire to be truly representative of the wider industry.”

The body, which formed in 1998 with the aim of giving PMI intermediaries a voice, has made several other significant leaps forward during recent years after having appeared to lose its way somewhat.

In April 2010, in conjunction with the Chartered Insurance Institute, it introduced its industry base level IF7 exam, which 1,100 advisers have already successfully passed, and it has significantly revamped its annual functions, which consist of the AGM, the summit (formerly known as the conference) and an additional membership meeting.

The summit has secured a much higher level of keynote speaking than the old conference, while the additional membership meeting has introduced highly successful ‘speed-dating’ sessions, enabling providers to contact a large number of intermediaries on the same day.

Nevertheless, the imminent departure of AMII chairman Wayne Pontin, whose watch oversaw many of these changes, has placed a cloud on the horizon. His chairmanship, which began in April 2012, had been so successful that the AMII executive had actually amended the constitution to allow him to exceed the traditional maximum two-year term on an annually reviewable basis. But having left Jelf Group to run his own Cardiff-based specialist intermediary Positively Healthcare, the additional demands on his time forced Mr Pontin to stand down earlier this month.

When announcing his departure at the November 2014 AMII summit, Mr Pontin left his membership in no doubt that it faced some tough challenges ahead, highlighting how current trends in policy pricing and adviser remuneration structures could lead to PMI becoming unsustainable as some insurers were taking a potentially irresponsible stance to gaining market share. So this is clearly one challenge that must be overcome.

During my tenure I feel we have probably only completed 45 degrees of the journey’s complete circle

He said: “During my tenure I feel we have probably only completed 45 degrees of the journey’s complete circle, as the barrier to growth of the market and political lobbying has centred on aggressive price-sensitive rating structures, with all insurers and intermediaries concentrating inwardly to retain their existing holdings and not concentrating on the opportunities to really grow this industry that sit within the current and potentially future crisis of our beloved NHS.

“A further barrier has been the initial apathy of the membership who previously didn’t attend regular meetings in numbers they should have, but this has recently changed and I was pleased with the attendance at the last summit of over 180 advisers from intermediary and corporate members.”

Feedback from members also suggests that AMII needs to address a significant communications problem. The quarterly newsletters have long since ceased, and its website, at www.amii.org.uk, needs more regular updating.

When Richard Bamford, managing director of Tonbridge-based specialist intermediary Citrus Healthcare, looked at the website this January he noticed that AMII news section was last updated in 2013, and that the breaking news section had been updated only three times since July 2012.

He said: “My initial thoughts were what exactly do they do with my £250 annual membership fee and why don’t I know? I asked them how we are supposed to know what’s going on and they admitted they didn’t communicate that well and said that I couldn’t see the minutes of the executive meeting as they weren’t publicly available. With corporate membership there surely should be enough money to send out communications.”

Susie Colley, principal at Torquay-based specialist intermediary West Country Health Care, said: “The website is so out of date it’s a total joke, and most clients looking for an appropriate intermediary would come off it within seconds. A website nowadays is the fundamental window into an organisation, and if that window isn’t open and transparent they are likely to look elsewhere. Any decent website would be updated at least weekly.”

There seems no reason why the communications issue should not be resolved going forwards or why AMII should not achieve its stated aims of introducing advanced level health insurance examinations in collaboration with the CII, and free training for members’ professional qualifications.

But the outcome of a proposed push to extend membership to group risk providers and employee benefit consultants seems far less certain. While this would undoubtedly help AMII’s finances even further it may not prove such an attractive idea to the group risk players, who are well served by their own body Group Risk Development.

Mr Scullion acknowledged that: “The anecdotal feedback we have is that some of the employee benefit consultants do not think they need AMII but feel that AMII needs them.”

AMII’s ambitions in this respect have inevitably reignited talk of the possibility of a single industry body to oversee the entire individual and group healthcare and protection field. But there are no signs that anything is imminent.

GRiD spokesman Katharine Moxham said: “From time to time the idea of a potential super-trade body has been mooted, and we do keep a watching brief and maintain relations with a range of industry organisations. The ABI is trying to have regular meetings with these bodies, and is making a big effort to pull it all together, and we are supporting that.

“But the reality is that I’m not sure that having a super-body would work in practice because the needs of PMI, individual protection and group risk are quite different. We do talk to each other, swap ideas and build relationships, and realistically we are probably doing as much as we can.”

Whatever the outcome of the push to attract group risk members, and despite the issues he highlighted at last November’s summit, Mr Pontin is confident that whoever is elected to succeed him as chairman this April will continue to make further progress. However, he is realistic enough to accept that the body may never fully realise all its goals.

He said: “I would hope the journey achieves at least another 45 degrees during the next five years, meaning that it will be halfway towards the expected destination. However, as the industry and the NHS changes, I doubt if the final 90 degrees will ever be achieved because delivery of healthcare for this country is ever-evolving, as is the advancement of science and new drugs and procedures to possibly make this ageing population achieve an even longer time on the planet.”

Edmund Tirbutt is a freelance journalist

AMII changed its name to the Association of Medical Insurers and Intermediaries in 2013.

The departing chairman left his membership in no doubt that it faced some tough challenges ahead.

The outcome of a proposed push to extend membership to group risk providers and employee benefit consultants seems far less certain.

AMII MEMBERSHIP

■ Intermediaries: AMII currently has 109 intermediary members, although numbers are constantly changing due to mergers and acquisitions.

■ Providers: AMII currently has 16 corporate members.

■ Current corporate members are:
Aviva, Axa PPP healthcare, AXA PPP International, Bupa, Health Shield, Westfield Health, CS Healthcare, Simplyhealth, Engage Mutual, The Permanent Health Company, Benenden Health, Health Assured, April UK, Medicash and Aetna