As millions of messages of love are being sent across the world today, one business is pausing to say thank you instead as it celebrates 40 years of good health with its Members. Queensland Country Health Fund first opened its doors to Members in Mount Isa on 14 February 1977.
Since that date, the health fund has grown to be the largest regional based health insurer in Queensland servicing over 23,000 Members across the State.
Queensland Country Health Fund CEO, Aaron Newman, says the growth can be credited to the organisations' commitment to providing competitive premiums, market leading benefits backed by dedicated staffs that always have the Member’s best interests at heart.
“Queensland Country Health Fund is part of a Member owned group and therefore our Members are at the centre of everything we do. The Health Fund, established originally as the MIM Employees’ Health Society was developed out of a need to access quality health care in regional Queensland that was affordable. Each development that we have undertaken since that date has been to further deliver on that need.
"Our focus has always been and will always be our Members and their health. As a result, our Members report a 97% satisfaction rating with their health insurance membership."
Newman says the high rating comes from continual analysis of what's going on in the market, how their Members needs are changing and how the Health Fund can continually improve for its Members.
"Where we can see that our Members are paying too much for particular services, or there is a gap in services, we work with health providers to reduce costs, increase services or increase the benefits we can reimburse our Members.
"This was taken to a new level in 2013 with our dental services where we could see that the cost of dental health in Mount Isa was higher than other areas, so we partnered with a new dental practice to deliver quality dental care for our Members at an agreed reasonable price. This made dental care affordable again for our Members in this area.
"We were very proud of that development and have since expanded on that concept to establish our own dental practice with the first opening in Townsville in 2015. We hope to expand this further into other communities where the model would benefit our Members."
Leading into their 40th year, perhaps its vision and bold developments like these that have earnt the Health Fund a CANSTAR Award for Queensland’s ‘Outstanding Value for Health Insurance - Extras - 2016’.