A planned tech upgrade which was supposed to drag a major Australian health fund into the future has instead left droves of members in the lurch, with some forced to pay high medical bills for measures which they were supposed to be covered for.
Many Defense Health members have made complaints to the Commonwealth Ombudsman regarding the technological fiasco, which they left them embarrassed and temporarily out-of-pocket as they waited for claims to be refunded manually.
The insurer’s Google reviews page and social media accounts have also taken a battering from furious clients, who have had a hard time to contact the company.
The ABC has spoken to many existing and former Defense Health members who said the upgrade had been disastrous.
Gerard Fogarty, the acting chief executive of Defense Health, apologized but said the problems “did not affect the majority” of members.
He said the system was affected by “performance issues” and “unexpected problems”
“Extensive testing was held before the new system was implemented,” Mr. Fogarty said.
However, given the difficulty and scale of the transition, some problems were recognized post going live which impacted some of our membership base.
“We are extremely sorry and trying to make things right and bring back the trust of our members”
Defense Health’s technical bungles provoked Sheryll Bird, a nurse from Werribee in Melbourne’s western suburbs, to resign the health insurer after more than 20 years of membership.
Mrs. Bird’s issues began after a dental claim was denied since Defence Health had not taken her premiums.
She waited two hours on hold to pay the insurer manually, even though she set up a direct debit before.
“In a score out of 10, I would rate it one, if that. It was absolutely appalling,” Mrs. Bird said.
There’s just been no communication whatsoever from them, when one tries to call them … you’re on hold for up to two hours.”
The Commonwealth Ombudsman, which investigates complaints regarding private health insurers, told the ABC that they have got 328 complaints about Defence Health since the beginning of the year.
A spokesman said that, “The complains which we receive about the Defence Health, was directly told to the insurer, so that it can help by contacting the members and solve their issues as soon as possible”
