Royal & SunAlliance Healthcare & Assistance director Steve Wood believes his company is putting more cases through rehabilitation than any other insurer following the launch of its rehabilitation unit, Health First.
Health First uses its medical and nursing skills to speed up the time Royal & SunAlliance clients take to recover from an illness or injury. Set up in September 2000, the unit has now dealt with around 6,000 cases.
Wood believes the venture could reduce costs by “substantially more than 10 to 15 per cent”.
As well as working with Healthcare & Assistance, Health First is also being integrated into the group risk, motor insurance and employer liabilities business areas.
Wood says: “We are putting more cases through rehabilitation than any other insurer. The only people who lose are the lawyers. It could reduce our costs by substantially more than 10 to 15 per cent.
“Also, we are taking more work into the private sector than we would just as a private medical insurance provider – so we are increasing our bargaining power.”