At any one time in Australia, IAG is managing thousands of injury related claims resulting from work or vehicle accidents. No one wants to be injured in a workplace or road accident, but if you are, you want the best treatment possible to help you recover.
Looking after customers in these circumstances, and helping to speed their recovery, is part of running a sustainable business. We’re not just there to pay the bills through an insurance claim; we’re also there to work with the medical industry to help develop the best possible methods of treatment for injured people.
Why would IAG invest in better medical treatment? Because it’s good for our customers, it’s good for the community at large, and it’s good for our business. When the cost of long term treatment can run into hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, and the insurance industry pays most of these costs, it makes business sense to work to get people back on their feet as soon as possible. Research shows that early, effective treatment often leads to dramatically better health outcomes for people, and allows them to lead more fulfilling lives.
This is why we’ve established a five year research project with the Pain Management Research Institute, operating under the auspices of the University of Sydney and the Royal North Shore Hospital, to work on new ways to improve recovery outcomes for people dealing with persistent pain after accidents.
And it’s why we’ve helped to establish the Accident Care Evaluation project in the Australian Capital Territory, in partnership with the Australian National University and the University of Sydney, to study how specialist medical treatment within days of a car crash can improve recovery outcomes for patients. When IAG is paying over A$40 million a year in personal injury claims in the ACT alone, it makes sense to invest in improving the medical care that people receive when they’re injured after a car crash.
Investments like these are not for the short term, and they offer no immediate payback, but they help people recover quickly from accidents and get on with their lives. They build greater capacity in the workforce in a time of a declining labour market and they minimise the insurance cost and claims of such injuries. In short, we’re convinced our investments are worthwhile, and that while we’re investing in the future of society, we’re also investing in our business.