THE Insurance Commission (IC) is scandalized the local insurers have in their possession untold amounts of unclaimed benefits that have accumulated through the years mostly because their beneficiaries are unaware of their existence.
As a result, IC chief Emmanuel F. Dooc should soon come out with a circular mandating insurance companies to settle the unpaid claims of policyholders.
According to Dooc, some policyholders are simply unaware they own particular cover to certain risks that some insurers fail to inform their beneficiaries for some reason or other.
“We are going to come up with a circular on unpaid claims. Many companies hold substantial amounts for uncollected or unpaid claims. That is likely to happen, because, in some cases, the beneficiaries do not even know they have coverage, because if one buys a policy, sometimes the insurer do not tell them,” Dooc told financial reporters in a group interview.
Dooc explained since policyholders do not know they are covered, they are unable to collect their claims. This is why some insurers are left with substantial amounts of uncollected or unpaid claims.
He further said, since the IC does not know how insurers handle uncollected or unpaid claims, a
circular must be issued to give closure to the matter. This was also said to help understand how insurance companies go about managing the unpaid claims and informing policyholders.
“There are plenty of instances like this [involving] huge amounts, as well. We do not know how they handle it, whether they form part of their miscellaneous accounts or whatever. So, we are going to be proactive here. We will issue a circular because there are a lot of those instances,” he said.
Dooc said the insurers need to manage the unpaid claims. If at all possible, even the IC may partake of a given percentage of the unpaid claims to form part of its budget, perhaps.
“I think we need some kind of regulation. If we are tasked to do the job, then maybe the IC can have a percentage as additional budget or whatever. That is legal. That [forms part of] the next circular because we are already done with the [insurer] Bill of Rights,” he said.
The circular on the Bill of Rights for Policyholders informs insurance policyholders of the 10 basic rights Dooc signed in May this year to help safeguard the wellness of the insuring public. Dooc said he may require insurance companies to post the Bill of Right in their respective offices so people are informed of their rights.
“Now, the Bill of Rights, we will implement it. I do not want it to be a white paper. In fact, I am thinking of requiring all companies to publish and post it in a prominent place in their head office or in the branch offices, so that the public will realize that they have those rights,” Dooc said.