Medibank profit jumps 46 per cent

KEEP paying those premiums. Medibank says “expanding margins” in its health insurance business helped it deliver a very healthy profit.

Medibank on Adelaide Street, Brisbane. Picture: Claudia Baxter

MEDIBANK Private has lifted full-year profit by 46.4 per cent to $417.6 million after expanding margins in its main health insurance business.

Health insurance premium revenue rose four per cent to $6.17 billion, amid slowing growth across the sector and affordability issues.

The insurer expects its fiscal 2017 business to be impacted by slowing market growth.

“While Medibank has paid $5.1 billion in claims this year on behalf of our customers, some challenges remain with the value we offer to our customers,” Medibank chief executive Craig Drummond said.

“What is clear is that we need to put our customers at the centre of everything we do. Customers’ needs and outcomes have to be our number one priority.

“To deliver on this we will need to increase our investment in our customer service and product offering. We know that we need to do more, and that we need to be easier to deal with. Key to this is the implementation of our new core policy management system, Project DelPHI.

“Despite initial implementation issues, we expect that in 2017 this system will be fully operational and will deliver a significant improvement to our customer experience.”