Guide to stem complaints about health insurance advertising

Consumers should be better informed about health insurance advertising after the release of a joint Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and Private Health Insurance Complaints Commissioner, guide to advertising for the private health insurance industry.

'The ACCC and the PHICC receive a flow of complaints from health funds and members of health funds about promotional claims made by some funds,' ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today. 'As a result, the ACCC and the PHICC produced the guide, with help from major health industry insurers, to help overcome these problems.'

The guide aims to help the industry and individual companies to develop strategies which will improve compliance with the Trade Practices Act and reduce the need for intervention. It is aimed at senior executives and other officers of health funds who make decisions about a health fund's promotional activities. This includes marketing managers, corporate lawyers, in-house publications staff and also staff of health funds' advertising agencies.

The guide includes sections on what the Trade Practices Act requires in terms of:

• the correctness and currency of promotional claims;
• the use of qualifications and limitations, such as fine print, disclaimers and omission for important terms, conditions or exclusions; comparative advertising;
• the use of terms that have a special meaning in the industry that is different from consumers' understanding, such as '100% cover' and 'immediate cover';
• the use and interpretation of waiting periods; and
• other issues including changes to benefits, excesses, ambulance cover, tax benefits and unexpected exclusions.

The guide also provides important information for health funds on how to avoid problems, by providing clear information to members or prospective members and by careful complaints handling and dispute resolution.