The partnership coincides with National Pain Week in Australia, which recognises the 1 in 5 Australians who live with chronic pain, including adolescents and children. 1 in 3 people over the age of 65 live with chronic pain, and it is one of the fastest growing medical conditions in Australia.

A key element of the partnership is to offer all customers on claim access to Beyond Pain’s Pain-Assist program, which is revolutionising the delivery of pain management services in Australia. The tailored pain coaching program is offered via telehealth to customers irrespective of their location, under the guidance of an experienced interdisciplinary pain management team. It has been hugely successful across the life insurance sector.

To date, more than 50 MLC Life Insurance customers on an income protection claim have benefited from Beyond Pain’s engagement. 74% of customers that have been referred to Beyond Pain have achieved their recovery goals, some of which include a return to work in 66% of cases.

Jane Dorter, Chief Claims Officer, MLC Life Insurance, said: “We see the impact that chronic pain has on our customers every single day through the claims we support.”

“Our purpose is to help our customers better understand and manage their condition and ultimately have the confidence to return to good work and a healthy lifestyle. While we’re here to protect our customers financially, we also want to support their overall wellbeing and provide tangible solutions that make a difference. Beyond Pain assists us to deliver this help when our customers need it most.”

According to Beyond Pain founder Anjelo Ratnachandra, the program’s focus is to improve functional capacity rather than specifically reducing pain.

“Too many programs use pain as a measure of efficacy, but the research suggests that the greater the frequency on pain reporting, the worse the pain scores. We instead focus on functional gains, helping people to get back to their lives (including work) despite the pain.”

“In developing the program, we looked at what we had wanted in a rehab program as service users ourselves. Our collective experience was that many programs are too clinical and didactic in their approach, and often clients are left feeling somewhat helpless with no clear direction. As such, we felt the purpose of the program should be to instil self-belief, and to humanise the rehab experience.”

The program is offered to all customers who have made an income protection claim at MLC Life Insurance.

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Andrew Beevors

MLC Life Insurance has appointed Andrew Beevors as its new Chief Claims Officer commencing on 16 August. He will report directly to CEO, Rodney Cook, as a member of his leadership team.

Andrew will be responsible for all aspects of claims handling and management and lead a team of more than 300 claims professionals.

He will replace Jane Dorter, who has been on secondment since April 2020 from her leadership role of KPMG’s Insurance Claims Solutions and Workplace Health division.

In 2020, MLC Life Insurance paid over $1.1 billion in claims to customers to support them in their time of need. The life insurer also has the shortest claims processing times in the sector across a range of categories, including claims for death (super), TPD (retail), Income Protection (retail), and CCI[1].

Andrew is an experienced financial services executive, having been employed in various roles within the insurance industry over the past 20 years. Prior to joining MLC Life Insurance, Andrew played a key role in modernising QBE’s Workers Compensation Claims model. More recently, he oversaw the re-imagining of QBE’s general insurance claims offering, delivering market leading customer experiences.

CEO, Rodney Cook, says Andrew’s appointment will be important to help fulfil the insurer’s ambition to build the industry’s leading claims function.

“I’m delighted that Andrew is joining MLC Life Insurance. Our ambition is to be Australia’s leading and most trusted life insurer.  What underpins that is delivering for our customers with speed, fairness, and empathy when they need it most – at claim time. He joins a team of experienced and empowered claims professionals and I look forward to him joining my leadership team.”

Speaking about his appointment, Andrew Beevors said: “I’m thrilled to be joining the MLC Life Insurance team as we continue our journey to improve customer and partner experience.  It’s a great honour to work for such an iconic Australian life insurer and I look forward to working with our great Claims team as we continue to protect Australians when they need it most.”

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Jane Dorter

MLC Life Insurance is launching a new mental health support program for customers diagnosed with depression and anxiety to help them improve their health ‘mindset’ and participate in ‘good’ work.

Developed in partnership with Monash University and return to health and work specialist IPAR, the Mindset4Life program provides customers with tailored support services to improve their health literacy, physical health and nutrition, as well as social connections. When combined effectively, the evidence shows these interventions lead to better health outcomes.

Mindset4Life is offered to all customers with an active income protection claim and they do not have to pay to use it. It uses an evidence-based biopsychosocial assessment tool, Positivum^[1], to objectively measure the need and level of support for each customer’s unique circumstance. Positivum measures include self-confidence, coping and resilience plus expectations about the person’s ability to return to work.

More than 30 MLC Life Insurance customers living with depression and anxiety have enrolled in the program to date. They have experienced significant uplift in the following areas:

• beliefs about the impact their condition or disability has on their ability to work, (up 67%)
• perceptions of their general health and quality of life, (up 54%)
• coping skills to handle life’s challenges, (up 46%)
• self-confidence in their ability to do what they want to do. (up 39%)

Jane Dorter, Chief Claims Officer, MLC Life Insurance, said: “There is currently a huge demand for mental health services in Australia and, worryingly, we know that 54% of people with mental ill-health do not access any treatment^[2]. As revealed in the Productivity Commission’s report into Mental Health, there is strong evidence that interventions such as regular exercise, eating a healthy diet and receiving enough sleep can reduce the risk of mental ill-health and associated impact to work, in conjunction with appropriate clinical treatments.

“Our aim is to help our customers better understand and self-manage their condition and have the self-confidence to return to optimal health and their work. While we’re here to protect our customers financially, we also want to support their overall wellbeing and provide tangible solutions that make a difference. People’s coping skills are individual, and it can often be challenging for them to see their own beliefs and perceptions. This is what Mindset4Life provides for.

Research indicates that people who invest in their physical health, nutritional health, and who are coached to make the most of health practitioner advice will experience less depression and anxiety than those who do not. Mindset4Life ensures every individual is empowered to do this on a daily basis by encouraging new lifestyles that change behaviour in the long term to better prevent relapses.

Jane Dorter added: “There is a strong likelihood that a potential future recessionary economic environment will impact people’s mental health and wellbeing. Programs like Mindset4Life could help prevent people’s risk of declining mental health and set them up with the coping skills to manage though the challenges.”

In the 12 months to December 2019, the life insurance industry contributed significantly to people with mental health conditions, paying out more than $750 million to approximately 6,800 people experiencing mental ill-health^[3].

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[1] Developed by IPAR and Monash University
[2] Black Dog Institute
[3] KPMG/FSC life insurance data project

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