Troy Woodland

CAFII Holds Webinar on 31 January, 2022 with Insurance Experts on Incentivization Programs

On 31 January, 2022, CAFII held a webinar on “The Ins and Outs of Life Insurers’ Health and Wellness Incentivization Programs.” Three expert insurance panelists participated:

• Patti Annable, Assistant Vice-President, Marketing Communications, Lumino Health, Sun Life;
• Lisa Heath, CEO, MediResource Inc, business partner to Canada Life’s Health Connected; and
• Paul Savage, Head of Product and Pricing, including for Vitality, Manulife.

The session covered a wide range of topics and the panelists were engaged in the discussion.  Patti Annable said that Lumino Health at Sun Life is about connecting customers with their needs.  Lisa Health spoke about Health Connected, which Canada Life participates in, with the intention to contributing the well-being of employees and connecting employees to the services that they need.  Paul Savage said that Vitality is a program that tries to use incentives to promote healthy choices.

Panelists gave examples of incentives to promote healthy behaviour, like providing rewards for getting a COVID-19 vaccine.  The panelists also noted that many people who have access to these programs are not aware of them, and increasing awareness is a key objective.  On this issue, Lisa Heath stated:

Our experience is that communication actually matters the very most. It could be because our focus is the group benefit market so we’re dealing with plan sponsors, but what’s most important if you want engagement is to tell people, your employees, very specifically what you’re offering to them in terms of health and wellness.

It’s more important, from our experience, than gamification because if people just don’t even know that the tool is available, and you don’t make any effort to tell them that these benefits are available, they’re not going to use them.

On the subject of wearables, Lisa Heath said that they had potential but that there was a need for evidence that they actually can influence behaviour, it needed to be kept in mind that not everyone has access to them, and caution needed to be shown around users being comfortable with sharing the data with third parties like their insurer.  

On the latter issue, Patti Annable said that the information that was collected was often used in the aggregate, and that protection of personal privacy was essential.  Lisa Heath said that regulatory changes would occur and that industry would have to adjust to that, and in fact proper regulation should be welcomed.  Paul Savage said that trust is central to the collection of health data and that privacy is absolutely paramount.

Poll questions found that roughly half of attendees were in incentivization programs, which panel members felt sounded roughly correct.  As well, 68% of attendees said gamification (like rewards, points, games) would increase their participation in incentivization programs, although panelists said that the demographic  that found gamification most appealing was younger people. 

The session included good representation from regulators across the country, with the following policy-makers and regulators registered for the webinar:  

• Quebec’s Autorité des marchés financiers, or AMF;
• The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, or FSRA;
• The Ontario Ministry of Finance;
• The Government of Alberta ;
• BC Financial Services Authority;
• The Insurance Council of BC;
• Consumer and Financial Services Commission of New Brunswick;
• The Insurance Councils of Saskatchewan.

Panelist Lisa Heath posted a LinkedIn thread on the Webinar:

Lisa Heath LinkedIn Posting on CAFII Webinar on Incentivization Programs

CAFII Holds Webinar with Marlena Labieniec, FSRA’s Director of Innovation, About the Authority’s Proposed Innovation Process

On November 29, 2021 CAFII held a webinar with Marlena Labieniec, FSRA’s Director of Innovation, about FSRA’s new innovation process and its Innovation Office. Prior to the discussion with Ms. Labieniec, introductory remarks were made by Glen Padassery, FSRA’s Executive Vice-President, Policy and Chief Consumer Officer, about FSRA’s vision for its role and approach in fostering innovation in Ontario’s financial services sector.  Among the topics covered by Ms. Labieniec were:

• the Innovation Office as FSRA’s “Innovation Orchestrator”; 
• facilitating both ‘inside-out’ and ‘outside-in’ points of entry; 
• FSRA’s five-step Innovation Process;
• the role of an Intake Form in standardizing starting point input to FSRA
• the importance of “Innovator Readiness”;
• FSRA’s five-step Risk Assessment Process in working with Innovators on proposed Innovations;
• the importance of strong, testable mitigation plans for any significant risks identified;
• the role of regulatory sandbox-like Test and Learn Environments (TLEs) in resolving uncertainty through experimentation and in ameliorating or clarifying identified risks sufficiently, for Innovations which initially generate a low or medium level of FSRA confidence;
• how TLEs will work; 
• the TLE fee structure;
• the “go” or “no go” decision;
• some hypothetical Use Cases/examples; and
• FSRA’s balancing of incumbents and new market entrants in fostering innovation.

The session included good representation from regulators across the country, with the following regulators registered for the session:

• Quebec’s Autorite des marches financiers, or the AMF;
• the Ministry of Finance, Government of Quebec;
• the Alberta Auto Insurance Rate Board;
• the Government of Alberta;
• the Alberta Insurance Council;
• Alberta Treasury Board and Finance, Government of Alberta;
• several of Marlena’s colleagues from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, or FSRA;
• the Financial and Consumers Services Commission of New Brunswick, or FCNB;
• the Insurance Councils of Saskatchewan;
• the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority, Government of Saskatchewan, or FCAA;
• the Insurance Council of British Columbia;
• the British Columbia Financial Services Authority, or BCFSA;
• the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, or FCAC; and
• the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, or OSFI.

The webinar included some live polls that demonstrated strong support for the efforts around innovation by FSRA. 

CAFII Holds Webinar with Provincial Regulators on Regulatory Priorities as Canada Emerges from COVID-19

On October 25, 2021 CAFII held a webinar on Provincial Insurance Policy and Regulatory Priorities and Emerging Issues As Canada Emerges From COVID-19.  The panelists were:

• Chris Carter, Vice-President, Financial Institutions and Mortgage Brokers Market Conduct, BC Financial Services Authority;
• Mark Brisson, Assistant Deputy Minister and Superintendent of Insurance, Alberta Treasury Board and Finance;
• Janette Seibel, Deputy Superintendent of Insurance, Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan.

The session covered a wide range of topics and the panelists were engaged in the discussion. The session included good representation from regulators across the country, with the following policy-makers and regulators registered for the webinar:  

• The Government of Alberta;
• The Alberta Insurance Council;
• BC Financial Services Authority;
• The Insurance Council of BC;
• The Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators, or CCIR;
• The Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organizations, or CISRO;
• Consumer and Financial Services Commission of New Brunswick;
• The Insurance Council of Manitoba;
• The Insurance Councils of Saskatchewan;
• The Office of the Alberta Superintendent of Insurance;
• The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, or OSFI; and
• The Government of Yukon. 

All the panelist emphasized the continuing importance of the fair treatment of customers.  Chris Carter said that in British Columbia there was a heightened interest in the emerging climate change challenges. Cyber risk was also raised by panelists as an increasingly important issue.  The issue was raised of the potential affect of COVID on the affordability of life insurance going forward.  It was also noted that there were important industry achievements around offering insurance digitally during the pandemic. 

In terms of trends, panelists felt that industry had been very flexible and innovative in responding to the pandemic. However, the panelists also felt that they needed to monitor carefully whether there were any changes in claims payout in the context of the pandemic.  It was also felt that the adoption of online insurance options would continue after the pandemic.  It was noted however that there is a digital divide in many provinces, where some consumers’ internet connections are not as good, especially for those in rural areas, and that could be important as digitization became more prevalent. 

Mark Brisson said that regulators appreciated the efforts industry had made during the pandemic including the offering of deferrals, rebates, and other measures to help consumers.  Jan Seibel said that industry had communicated emerging issues with regulators well during the pandemic, and this helped ensure a coordinated approach between industry and regulators.  She also felt that industry handled the move to an at-home requirement effectively.  Chris Carter said that industry was extraordinarily flexible and responsive during the pandemic.  The panelists also discussed fair treatment of customers and how to measure it or demonstrate it.  The CCIR, which the three panelists all sit on, was also discussed around harmonization and how it could advance this objective.