ElderShield Review Committee sets up Sub-Committee to Review Claims Assessment Process and Suggests Study of Government Administration

ISSUED BY THE ELDERSHIELD REVIEW COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT 

1.            The ElderShield Review Committee has set up a Claims Assessment Sub-Committee to look into ways to improve the ElderShield claims process. The Committee has also suggested to the Ministry of Health (MOH) to study the different models of administering the enhanced ElderShield scheme, including the option of having the government manage the scheme.

2.            In the past six months, the ElderShield Review Committee has engaged and heard the views of over 600 Singaporeans from across a wide spectrum of age groups, gender and backgrounds. The Committee has received many useful and insightful views across 16 focus group discussion sessions. Views were also sought from stakeholders such as the long-term care service providers and financial advisors, as well as community partners.

3.            Mr Chaly Mah, Chairman of the ElderShield Review Committee said: “We have had many rich and meaningful discussions with participants and stakeholders over the past six months. We adjusted the design of the discussions over time, so that we are able to understand more comprehensively, participants’ views towards ElderShield coverage, benefits such as payout levels and duration, premiums, administration models and claims process. By engaging participants in small group discussions, we are also able to better understand how families and individuals in Singapore prepare for their long term care needs, as well as factors contributing to the choices they make.” 

4.            “The sessions have been very useful in providing perspectives and suggestions for the Committee. I would like to thank all participants and stakeholders for sharing their views so generously with us. We take each and every feedback seriously, and we will consider them carefully before we make our recommendations in the first half of next year.”

Claims Assessment Sub-Committee

5.            The Claims Assessment Sub-Committee was set up to look into improving the ElderShield claims process and to make it easier to navigate for severely disabled patients, caregivers and long-term care providers. This is one of the key areas of review that arose from the Committee’s engagement with the public and stakeholders.

6.            The Sub-Committee comprises four members headed by Dr Loh Yik Hin, Chief Executive Officer of St Andrew’s Community Hospital. The list of members are in Annex A.

7.            Dr Loh said: “The Sub-Committee recognises the importance of enhancing the claims process to ensure Singaporeans are able to benefit from the scheme. When a family member experiences severe disability, navigating the claims process may be stressful for the caregiver, especially when the care needs have drastically increased. The Sub-Committee will study the ElderShield claims process from start to end in detail, as well as users’ experiences before we make our recommendations.” 

8.            One potential area of improvement the Sub-Committee will look at is the need to improve the accessibility of information on the ElderShield claims process. Caregivers have highlighted that patients are often unaware about their ElderShield coverage or how to make a claim.  To address this, the Sub-Committee is studying the types of care that severely disabled patients go through in hospitals and other care settings. The aim is to identify key points along those paths at which important information on ElderShield can be provided to patients. The Sub-Committee is also studying how best to work with frontline staff to guide families more effectively through the claims application process.

Suggestion to study Government Administration

9.            The ElderShield Review Committee has suggested to MOH to study the different possible models of administering the enhanced ElderShield scheme, including that of having the government administer the scheme.

10.         Currently, when Singaporeans are auto-enrolled onto ElderShield at 40 years old, they are assigned to one of three private insurers administering the scheme. Some participants suggested that the administration of ElderShield should be simplified to a single provider approach, to be administered by the government. They drew parallels to the single provider approach of MediShield Life.

11.         The Committee is of the view that there is merit in studying the value and feasibility of Government administration of ElderShield, while retaining private insurers’ participation in the provision of long term care insurance.

ELDERSHIELD REVIEW COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT
6 JULY 2017

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ANNEX A

ELDERSHIELD CLAIMS ASSESSMENT SUB-COMMITTEE MEMBERS

The biographies of the 4 Sub-Committee members are in the table below.