Health for Life: investing in your members' health

When most Australians think about life insurance, they naturally think about protection for when something goes wrong. And while that’s reassuring, what many people don’t fully appreciate is the connection between life insurance and health.

Life insurance is there to provide protection and peace of mind to your members for when something goes wrong with their health and impacts their ability to earn an income. These unexpected turns in life can have life-changing consequences that can impact a members physical, mental and financial health.

At TAL, we believe that health is a holistic and interconnected concept and that’s why it is embedded in everything that we do. It starts with how we design our products and services, and flows through to how we help your members live a healthy life, provide them with access to the right support if they need to make a claim, and enable them to empower their recovery so they can reach their best health and work outcomes.

We call our unique approach TAL Health for Life

Embedding health in everything that we do

Traditionally, insurers have outsourced health services. Back in 2016, recognising the critical role health professionals play throughout the member journey, TAL was the first Australian life insurer to establish a dedicated in-house health services capability.

Since then, our investment has focused on responding to the changing health needs of Australians. It recognises the role of health within the insurance experience, leverages insights and competencies so we can improve product design, and enhances our support for your members across wellness, claims and recovery services.

Starting out with just six people, our Health Services team has grown to 22 health specialists, including a Chief Medical Officer and a team of inhouse doctors, psychologists, forensic accountants and allied health professionals.

Back in 2016, things looked very different both at TAL and across our industry. For instance, claims relating to mental health conditions made up just 14% of the claims TAL paid, but has grown to be our leading cause of claim in 2022, accounting for almost one in five of the claims we now pay. TAL was the first life insurer to appoint a Head of Mental Health and we continue to evolve our capabilities to ensure we deliver the best possible outcomes for your members.

In support of mental health, our Mental Health Action Group brings together experts and people with lived experience. Our partnerships have enabled us to work alongside the likes of the University of Sydney – to develop our award-winning mental health engagement tool, Headlight – and Teladoc Health to support members with mental health claims to review their diagnosis, medication and treatment. These services build on the insights in our Mental Health & Life Insurance White Paper.

Supporting health literacy and member engagement

We know that there’s a natural connection between a member’s super and their engagement with their health and wellbeing. Good health throughout their working life is closely linked to members’ capacity to work and, by extension, reach a healthy retirement. So, it makes sense that super funds and employers take a leading role in advocating for and encouraging health engagement.

To help you and your teams build the skills and knowledge to better support members on their health, TAL Insurance Academy – our dedicated education platform – includes modules to enable more informed conversations with members. Topics include mental health conditions like depression, anxiety and bipolar, as well as self-care for frontline teams, five ways to wellbeing and talking to grieving members.

Our marketing collateral library also provides a comprehensive range of content and campaigns – including brochures, flyers, infographics, articles and campaign materials – to engage members and help members feel more informed about their health. Our campaigns are linked to our top claims causes, including cancer, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and mental health, as well as financial health topics.

Introducing TAL Health for Life for your members

With a strong commitment to helping you to enhance the physical, mental, and financial health of your members, the next stage of our health journey sees the introduction of TAL Health for Life.

TAL Health for Life is here to protect and support your members’ wellbeing at every stage of their health journey - including before, during and after a claim. It offers programs and services to help members balance their physical, mental and financial wellbeing and deliver relevant, targeted and impactful health outcomes.

We created TAL Health for Life to simplify our offering and provide an evidence-based and holistic proposition. Our aim is to help your members get more from life, and we do this across three levels.

• Healthy living: Supporting members to tangibly improve their health outcomes through proactive health engagement, including tools, content, campaigns and activations to help members be informed, check themselves and take action.
• Claims support: Caring for your members if they need to make a claim by to supporting them initially with services to manage their condition and then access recovery options to help them reach their best health. It includes access to our cancer, trauma, pain, fatigue and mental health support services.
• Empowering recovery: When the time is right, we coach your members through a wide range of services to help them meet their health goals and sustainably achieve the best possible health and work outcomes. It includes access to our career, business, return-to-work, exercise and mental health coaching services.

Continuously improving TAL Health for Life

We’re proud of the way our unique approach to health has contributed to an overall industry-leading position, including lower than-average claim decision times and disputes for December 2022². Our Health Services team provided more than 15,000 inhouse technical, financial and medical reviews in 2022 to support your members with faster, evidence-based decisions. And, to help members get on track, our claims support and recovery programs have improved health outcomes with 81% of members participating in support services during 2022, reporting increased capacity to work.

An essential element of TAL Health for Life is continuously improving our offering to remain relevant to the health and engagement needs of you and your members. We have a number of key health initiatives underway and we look forward to talking to you about them over the coming months. In the meantime, visit our TAL Health for Life Group HQ pages for more details.

1 Claims statistics based on total claims paid under TAL Life Limited insurance products between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017.

2 Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, Life Insurance Claims and Disputes Statistics, December 2022

This document contains a summary of the circumstances in which TAL Life Limited paid claims in relation to a range of different life insurance products from 2016 to 2023. Payment of each claim is subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable policy, which are set out in the relevant Product Disclosure Statement and Policy Document.