Southern Enterprise Awards 2020

76 | Southern Enterprise Awards 2020 Sep20108 With a history dating back more than a century, WPA is a specialist health insurer that looks after families and all businesses, from micro-enterprises through to blue chip global brands. Embodying people to fund their healthcare and promote good health, WPA is synonymous with outstanding healthcare and health insurance. We take a closer look at the firm to learn more about it following its success in the Southern Enterprise Awards 2020 from SME News Magazine. Since the formation of WPA in 1901, WPA has focused on two core objectives which has secured its place in the health insurance world. The first is to help people fund their healthcare through the insurance business, and the second is to promote good health that is delivered by the WPA Benevolent Foundation. As a non-profit organisation, WPA is not hampered by the demands of shareholders that are motivated purely by financial goals. Rather, WPA focuses on offering its customers access the sort of healthcare that they want for themselves and their families. In short, WPA does not profit from illness of its clients and acts differently to the rest of the United Kingdom’s health insurance market. The firm’s core value is always to put customers at the centre of everything that is done and every decision that is made regarding their health and wellbeing. WPA’s award-winning service excellence and specialist clinical teams provide dedicated and personal claims management to support all of their customers with complex clinical needs. This razor-sharp focus has seen the firm settle nearly eight hundred million pounds’ worth of claims in the last ten years, with only nine Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) adjudications against it. Transparency is another theme at WPA, as it is the only United Kingdom- based health insurer to publish FOS complaints and ‘live’ telephone statistics, giving potential customers an indication of how they might expect to be treated on a daily basis. The world of insurance, and the slightly smaller world of health insurance, is still full of competitors for WPA. A significant competitive differentiator that WPA has is its ‘freedom to choose’ strategy. While other medical insurers encourage customers to go to certain hospitals and be seen by named consultants, WPA offers customers the freedom to choose where, when, and who provides the treatment they need. Help is never far away for WPA customers either. Best Specialist Health Insurance Company 2020 - UK Other insurers have a direct sales force and rely on the intermediary market, whereas WPA has a network of Healthcare Partners based around the United Kingdom who are, in essence, the local face of WPA that personalises everything the firm does in the community. Much like many other organisations and industries, COVID-19 is at the top of the agenda for WPA. However, rather than let the virus beat the firm, it has stood strong against it and has excelled at serving customers, wherever its staff may be working from. The preparation for COVID-19 has taken decades, be it technical investments or continued support to build up a level of trust that few others can match in the industry today. As a reflection of its customer focus, WPA was the first UK insurer to pay a rebate to customers at the end of April, and remains the only insurer to pay a second rebate in June. Others may have committed to this for 2021, but WPA led the market because it was the right thing to do. Ultimately, WPA is thriving, with the key being its ability to always exceed customers’ expectations. The firm is growing because of that focus on customers, whilst also being mindful of changing environment that is the future. With the advancement of technology, comes evolution. The latest iteration of the WPA Health App gives customers the ability to make a health insurance claim with an instant authorisation of valid claims, without having to talk to someone, or wait for an email confirmation. In effect, instant access to their policy in the palm of their hand. That is what WPA offers, and it is truly outstanding, even in today’s modern and fast-moving world. Contact: Charlie MacEwan Website: https://www.wpa.org.uk/ WPA was the first UK insurer to pay a rebate to customers at the end of April, and remains the only insurer to pay a second rebate in June.