MLC Life Insurance's pioneering approach to mental health support

At MLC Life Insurance, our goal is to make life easier for our customers during challenging times. Through the Empower service, our Mental Health Claims Team has transformed the claims process for income protection policyholders facing mental health challenges.

Transforming mental health claims with Empower

In partnership with allied health practitioner IPAR, our claims team established the Empower service to simplify the claims process. Since its implementation, we’ve expedited mental health claim decisions, reducing the time by ten business days. This is having a positive experience on our customers with one customer recently sharing “Really happy with the speed and efficiency of processing the claim. Your service has been tremendous and professional.”

With quicker claim decisions, our customers can put their focus back on their treatment and recovery journey. Another customer noted, “It’s the first time I’ve felt supported by a company in the three years since my condition started.”

Faster claims, earlier treatment, quicker recovery

Here’s how MLC Life Insurance’s award-winning approach supports customers with mental health claims:

1.???? Personalised and humanised support: When customers feel genuinely cared for, they provide better-quality information, enabling us to expedite their claims. One customer described the experience "like breaking down a mountain into manageable pieces.”

2.???? Simplified lodgement process: We’ve removed the need for customers to complete an initial claim form and obtain a treating doctor's report.

3.???? Channel choice: Customers choose how they want to engage with us. 50% of initial assessments are conducted via telehealth, ensuring location is never a barrier.

How Empower works

Empower is an early intervention process designed to support customers lodging a mental health claim. We’ve re-engineered the claim process to take the paperwork out of the process, eliminating the need for an initial claim form and treating doctor report.

Instead, we provide early support from expert allied health practitioners who facilitate medical case conferences and recovery plans. Through our partnership with IPAR, these practitioners, often psychologists or occupational therapists, bring extensive experience in mental health settings. IPAR’s national footprint ensures that customers in major metropolitan areas receive in-person support.

These measures have simplified the lodgement process for our customers and streamlined information gathering and assessments for our case consultants. We’ve personalised and humanised the claims process, offering unprecedented support to our most vulnerable customers in their time of need. Now, we’re working to scale up the service.

Recognition and awards

This year, we were proud to be recognised by our industry partners at the 2024 ALUCA Life Insurance Excellence Awards for our commitment to innovation and customer-centricity. Our award-winning approach to mental health claims is one way we deliver on our promise to make life simpler for our customers and partners.

Learn more

Discover how MLC Life Insurance is setting new industry standards and making Life simpler. Call us at 13 65 22 or reach out to your Business Development Manager today.