Making a Difference Awards Winner, Life, shares her passion for rehabilitation

Swiss Re Life & Health Claims Service Manager Lucy Hartley was humbled to win ANZIIF's 2023 Making a Difference Awards in the Life Insurance category. 

“There are so many people doing great work in this industry,” she says. “The more we work together, the more people we will be able to help.”

Genuine care for people

While Hartley says no one person has influenced her specifically, she is motivated by supporting insurance customers who have been diagnosed with an injury or medical condition, and are at their most vulnerable. 

“Being able to help people access the support they need and overcome barriers to recovery is very rewarding,” she says. “I am also awed by the people who work in rehabilitation and insurance — there is genuine care for customers, and people in this industry change lives. That's very inspiring.”

Born and raised in Perth, Western Australia, Hartley completed a Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Curtin University of Technology. She had every intention of becoming a clinical psychologist, but her plan was waylaid when she enrolled in a rehabilitation psychology post-graduate degree. 

“Although I initially kept a day's worth of counselling clients on top of my rehabilitation work, I quickly discovered my preference for helping people at scale — seeing clients one by one just wasn't enough,” she says. 

True calling

For many years before moving into life insurance, Hartley specialised in workers' compensation and motor vehicle insurance at rehabilitation providers across Western Australia, NSW and the UK.

She joined Swiss Re in London in 2016, when a clinical role that would allow her to apply her background in psychology became available. 

“Rehabilitation providers service the insurance industry, so for me, it was an easy decision to move into life insurance,” she says. 

“Working for a reinsurer gives me a market-wide view and enables me to identify trends early and be responsive in how we can best help customers,” she says. 

“In addition, the types of medical conditions we come across tend to be more varied and complex, for example, cancer and neurological conditions.”

Of all the different personal injury schemes she has experienced as a provider, Hartley finds her life insurance role the most rewarding thus far.

Although closely regulated, there is still less legislation guiding day-to-day decisions in life insurance compared with other personal injury schemes. This provides insurers the opportunity to take a more innovative approach to services and solutions.

As the Claims Service Manager for Swiss Re, it’s Hartley’s role to deliver services and solutions that best support customers across Australia and New Zealand to recover and return to work. 

Managing mental wellbeing

In 2022, she conducted a market-wide survey to measure the use of rehabilitation services across the Australian life insurance industry and authored Swiss Re's Rehabilitation Watch 2022 report.

This highlighted the important work being undertaken by life insurers, as well as identified opportunities for the industry to evolve.  

“Life insurers are now offering preventative rehabilitation offerings to policyholders, such as the Wysa Assure mental health app which Swiss Re co-launched this month with MLC Life Insurance,” she says. 

“It is exciting to combine AI technology with a health solution that contributes to the prevention and management of poor mental wellbeing. I am looking forward to seeing how many customers we can help.”

On the horizon, Hartley is eager to see how technology evolves rehabilitation and claims. 

“We’re seeing virtual reality and wearable data used in rehabilitation solutions, and machine learning and AI will likely reduce the administrative burden for claims assessors to allow more time for human connections,” she says.

“Ultimately, I want to help the industry keep our policyholders healthy, providing them with the tools and motivation to do so.” 

Bringing industry together

To that end, Hartley plans to leverage the opportunity presented by both her Swiss Re role and her current position on the ALUCA Board to implement positive change at an industry level. 

“Although helping customers to manage a health condition is satisfying, I’m passionate about the unique opportunity we have to support positive wellbeing at a community level,” she says. 

“This could involve engaging regulators, not-for-profit organisations, and other personal injury schemes to truly benefit from cross-sector collaboration.”

Hartley encourages other life insurance professionals to enter the Making a Difference Awards. “It is important to recognise the important role insurance plays in supporting unwell or injured people at their most vulnerable, and reducing protection gaps,” she says. 

“The Making a Difference Awards uplift people, recognise them for their important contributions and celebrate the difference we make in the community.”

Find out more about the Making a Difference Awards