Euro-Center Newsleer Vol.02 Issue 03 Page 1 Euro Center Holding Krizikova 36a 186 00 Prague 8 Czech Republic Phone: (+420) 221 860 330 Email: [email protected]Website: www.euro-center.com The Global Insider September, 2015 Vladislav Skop page 1 Commercial Manager Euro-Center Holding Expanding our Middle Eastern Network Travellers and expatriates in Saudi Arabia Greengs Lucy Song page 2 Operaons Manager Euro-Center China Medical Inflaon in Asia Featured Euro-Centers Vladislav Skop Commercial Manager Ayce Birercin Riley page 3 General Manager Euro-Center Turkey Euro-Center’s annual conference for key operaonal staff was held in September and as usual, it was a successful event. This me the host was Euro-Center Madrid; our new 24/7 assistance hub and youngest member of the Euro-Center Group. These operaonal conferences ensure cross Euro-Center synergy and alignment of opera- onal applicaons, strategies, the claims system and case handing. They are also our oppor- tunity to gather a very talented group of operaonal people who together discuss new ap- proaches and ideas that bring the organizaon forward. Results of projects from last year were presented and new project groups have been created with specific aims, deadlines and goals. With worldwide representaon, an acve effort is required to keep our uniform Euro-Center spirit alive. Not just management, but also operaonal employees must feel collegial with their worldwide counterparts and we encourage an environment for it to be natural to dis- cuss operaons, cases and other maers with colleagues at other Euro-Centers. This world- wide team spirit ensures internaonally minded local employees, smooth cross-connent case handling, cooperaon on network development and a global understanding for the company’s vision. This benefits our clients, their policyholders and ourselves. This year it was a parcular pleasure to get to know our colleagues in Madrid, and new colle- gial relaonships were established. Now it is me to get to work with implementaon of proposed projects – but we already look forward to the next annual conference – Euro- Center locaon sll to be decided. Key Operaons Staff Annual Conference 2015 Hanne Bodil Smit page 4 General Manager Euro-Center Cape Town Security services in Africa Tourist aacks and the travel industry Axel Holmkvist Cabo page 5 Claims Handler Euro-Center Mallorca The world of assistance is changing rapidly and we need to respond to these changes, while also ancipang them and having soluons ready. We therefore find our- selves connuously reassessing and devel- oping our services. It is a perpetual process and we derive great benefit from our worldwide presence and local knowledge that is a source of diverse and excellent inspiraon. Thus, a soluon that proved to be working in one region is tested elsewhere and, if it cannot be used in its enrety, serves as a springboard for creang a soluon that offers local benefits. I am proud to see that Euro-Center employees do not simply stay put and carry on with “business as usual”, but come up with bright ideas on improv- ing our performance and ulmately our customers’ sasfacon. Currently, we invest a lot of effort in strengthening the relaonship with our customers. Our vision is for customers to experience themselves as close business partners, who recognize the advantage of having Euro-Center as such. Euro-Center connues cemenng the world’s view of our business as a stable and trustworthy compa- ny, which contributes to the success of its clients. We have to connue evolving, but trust, transparency and excellence in service shall remain the basic pillars on which the company stands. Storytelling Compeon Winner “A Rewarding Workplace”
Euro-Center’s annual conference for key operational staff was held in September and as usual, it was a successful event. This time the host was Euro-Center Madrid; our new 24/7 assistance hub and youngest member of the Euro-Center Group.
These operational conferences ensure cross Euro-Center synergy and alignment of opera-tional applications, strategies, the claims system and case handing. They are also our oppor-tunity to gather a very talented group of operational people who together discuss new ap-proaches and ideas that bring the organization forward. Results of projects from last year were presented and new project groups have been created with specific aims, deadlines and goals.
With worldwide representation, an active effort is required to keep our uniform Euro-Center spirit alive. Not just management, but also operational employees must feel collegial with their worldwide counterparts and we encourage an environment for it to be natural to dis-cuss operations, cases and other matters with colleagues at other Euro-Centers. This world-wide team spirit ensures internationally minded local employees, smooth cross-continent case handling, cooperation on network development and a global understanding for the company’s vision. This benefits our clients, their policyholders and ourselves.
This year it was a particular pleasure to get to know our colleagues in Madrid, and new colle-gial relationships were established. Now it is time to get to work with implementation of proposed projects – but we already look forward to the next annual conference – Euro-Center location still to be decided.
Key Operations Staff Annual Conference 2015
Hanne Bodil Smit page 4
General Manager Euro-Center Cape Town
Security services in Africa
Tourist attacks and the travel industry
Axel Holmkvist Cabo page 5
Claims Handler Euro-Center Mallorca
The world of assistance is changing rapidly and we need to respond to these changes, while also anticipating them and having solutions ready. We therefore find our-selves continuously reassessing and devel-oping our services. It is a perpetual process and we derive great benefit from our worldwide presence and local knowledge that is a source of diverse and excellent inspiration.
Thus, a solution that proved to be working in one region is tested elsewhere and, if it cannot be used in its entirety, serves as a springboard for creating a solution that offers local benefits. I am proud to see that Euro-Center employees do not simply stay put and carry on with “business as usual”, but come up with bright ideas on improv-ing our performance and ultimately our customers’ satisfaction.
Currently, we invest a lot of effort in strengthening the relationship with our
customers. Our vision is for customers to experience themselves as close business partners, who recognize the advantage of having Euro-Center as such. Euro-Center continues cementing the world’s view of our business as a stable and trustworthy compa-ny, which contributes to the success of its clients. We have to continue evolving, but trust, transparency and excellence in service shall remain the basic pillars on which the company stands.
Storytelling Competition Winner
“A Rewarding Workplace”
Euro-Center Newsletter Vol.02 Issue 03
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Ronald Groenendijk
General Manager
Euro-Center China
Lucy Song
Operations Manager
was about 10%. The trend in mainland China also continues to edge upward, but seems to have stabilised in 2015 due to the “Healthy China 2020” policy announced and managed by the government.
However private healthcare providers have the opportunity to increase the prices as there is a language barrier for foreigners to visit doctors in public hospitals.
This is the same situation in Hong Kong, where medical fees in the private sector are not regulated and there are no require-ments for private healthcare providers to divulge their fees and charges.
Some private hospitals have taken the initiative to increase transparency by dis-playing information about their fees sched-ule. However, the information mainly per-tains to the daily fees for the various types of wards and the fees for packaged ser-vices such as maternity packages.
Due to the cost of the medical expenses being unregulated, Hong Kong alone man-aged to collect a rate considerably higher than the next two countries (in order of increased rate), Singapore with 8.9% and China with 8.8%. All three countries show figures relatively high compared to the world average of 8.4%, which appears low due to figures from countries like Kenya (7.5%) and Dubai (8.0%).
In contrast to this, is the decrease in the net number growth of expatriates relo-cating to Hong Kong, which has in the past seen inflation slowed, exemplified in the drop from a rate of 13.3% in 2010 down to
the current rate of 7.5%. However, inflation rates in Hong Kong are unlikely to lose their reputation of having one of the highest medical expenses in the world, as the de-mand for medical services continues to increase the supply in the private healthcare sector.
The demand for high quality medical ser-vices amongst expatriates and high net worth individuals in an increasingly expen-sive region of the world, is a factor that distinguishes Asia’s average of inflation when compared to the rest of the world.
As the local service office, in order to avoid high medical expenses caused by medical inflation and to keep the claim costs reason-able and customary, Euro-Center China has established more cashless service agree-ments with public hospitals who have an international department and/or private wing.
These hospitals are all able to provide more professional medical services with English speaking staff, and at a lower cost com-pared with other private medical facilities in China.
The medical cost trend is an indicator re-flecting the combined impact of cost chang-es for medical products or services, and the utilization or consumption rate for those products or services. The health insurance industry (XLV) uses the medical cost trend as a benchmark to project future changes in medical costs and to set premium rates accordingly. Therefore it is very important for our customers to understand the medi-cal inflation rate in the area.
According to a study by the PwC Health Research Institute, 31% of the total increase in medical costs - the cost of medical prod-ucts and services to treat patients - is due to inpatient services or overnight hospital stays. Only 19% is due to outpatient ser-vices provided without hospitalization.
Medical cost inflation remains high in many Asia Pacific markets, especially in mainland China and Hong Kong due to an increasing demand for treatment in the public and private sector. The number of medical cases are rising due to aging demographics, an increase in communicable diseases and poor lifestyle.
In big Chinese cities an additional negative factor is respiratory illnesses caused by air pollution. These additional inflation factors are increasing the utilisation of private hos-pitals who raise their prices almost yearly using their monopoly position in the private sector.
As a result, the inflation trend in 2013-2014
Medical Inflation in Asia
Even though the weather is quite hot in Beijing, the calendar says it is time to cele-brate the Chinese Moon Festival, meaning that it is already September and autumn is here.
Many claims have been submitted after the summer holiday and it is highly important for us to process the claims within our turnaround time, while ensuring reasona-ble claims cost especially for Hong Kong and mainland China. Although more medi-
Inflation rates for 2010-2014
Reception area for public hospital in China
majority of foreigners prefer medical visits at private hospitals, which have western standards and provide English-speaking services. However, the prices there are extremely high and the providers are un-regulated by the government.
In order to counter this, Euro-Center China is working hard with public hospitals to get them to deliver the same level of services seen at private facilities.
Should we succeed in this, we would be able to save our customers significant medical costs, even with the currently high inflation rate.
cal facilities have opened in China and Hong Kong, the medical expenses for these areas are still rapidly increasing. The
Euro-Center China Team
Euro-Center Newsletter Vol.02 Issue 03
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Euro-Center Turkey
Ayce Birercin Riley
General Manager
Greetings from a very sunny and busy Is-tanbul.
It has been very much a busy year so far this year, building on the excellent results of last year and working intensely on ex-tending our coverage in the Middle East.
Like many parts of the world, Euro-Center Turkey is affected by the turmoil of our times. The number of foreign visitors to Turkey fell 2.25 percent in the first six months. The biggest fall was recorded amongst Russian tourists, with a drop of
Travellers and expatriates in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia was relatively undeveloped at the time of its great oil discovery in the late 1930s. It therefore needed foreign expertise and labour to exploit these vast oil reserves.
The country of origin has interestingly always been an important factor in determining foreign workers' occupational roles in Saudi Arabia. For example, a recent academic study of a Danish manufacturing company’s Saudi subsidiary noted that a manager is generally a European, a supervisor an Egyptian, while Filipino employees often have technical roles, and Indians the lowest in the hierarchy, work in production. Foreign worker’s presence in Saudi Arabia tends to be transitory: only 3% remain in the country for more than six years.
Saudi Arabia’s extensive medical industry and its many excellent medical providers therefore also rely heavily on educated expatriates, and the standard of healthcare in Saudi Arabia is generally considered to be equal in quality to Western Europe and the USA.
Tourism in Saudi Arabia is a long-term proposition, but the groundwork is currently being laid by the Supreme Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, to create an “environment for investment” through drafting a regulatory framework, offering incentives for general and targeted investment, and devising long-term strategies for recruiting and training personnel in the hotel and hospitality sector
An interesting development for insurances and assistance companies alike is that Saudi Arabia has been preparing to change their “free health services” for all pilgrims, and will start requiring private travel insurance. In 2015, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj) is anticipated to include over 2 million people. Euro-Center Turkey are following this development closely and are ready to assist policy holders as soon as these new regulations come into force. In addition to the Hajj travelers, there are also many foreign pilgrims visiting Mecca during the year. Of course, in all of the areas where we see expatriates, a network is already in place.
Expanding our Middle Eastern Network
Euro-Center Turkey coverage now extends to Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Yem-en. In these ten countries we have a work-ing relationship with a high number of
providers who accept our guarantee of payment. The Middle Eastern market is a special one where the providers are quite content with their existing way of business and are not
almost 25 percent. This was mainly due to the economic problems in Russia.
The unfortunate terrorist activities in Tur-key earlier this year also caused concern and many countries including the United States, Great Britain and Germany have issued travel advisories for their citizens in recent months, which contributed to the drop in Turkish tourism. However, terror groups, by and large mainly target the po-lice or the military, tend to avoid civilians and are mostly active in the East and the South East of Turkey.
Wishing for more peace and stability in the world we look forward to growing our busi-ness together.
so eager to do business with foreign com-panies. The reasons are many. Transfer of funds to these countries take longer than usual and they have developed some dis-trust towards foreign companies due to late payments. Furthermore, some find the additional paperwork inconvenient and prefer having the policy holder pay cash for their treatment. It does take considerable time and effort developing trust and con-vincing the provider of the mutual benefits of direct payment agreements.
However, due to the expertise of our local team who have a keen knowledge of local customs and traditions, we have managed to begin an excellent cooperation with key providers and are now seeing an increase in Middle Eastern cases from our current insurance portfolio of clients. External in-terest in this area has also been voiced and we are of course very excited about this.
Doha, Museum of Islamic Art
Pilgrims at Mecca (Hajj), Saudi Arabia
Euro-Center Newsletter Vol.02 Issue 03
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Africa is going green and experiencing a revolution towards cleaner energy through the development of renewable resources.
This is being achieved by tapping into its plentiful natural resources and open spaces which are available throughout the conti-nent.
Hydro, geothermal, solar and wind power solutions are all attracting big private invest-ments.
These projects are popping up all over the African continent in rural and remote areas where infrastructure, medical facilities and emergency prompt response options are not available.
Euro-Center Cape Town is engaging with international on-site medical service provid-ers and international security companies to meet this new demand for remote medical support and security services of our clients.
Security services in Africa
Hanne Bodil Smit
General Manager
Euro-Center Cape Town
Since the beginning of 2015 we have expe-rienced a major increase in terrorist relat-ed cases, and Euro-Center Cape Town have assisted in non-medical evacuation of policy holders out of several countries including Chad, South Sudan, Central Afri-can Republic and on the Ethiopian/Somali border. These attacks can have devas-tating consequences for the tourist sector and for local commerce. After the recent terrorist attacks in the National Museum in Tunis and the later shooting on one of the busiest beaches in Tunisia, the country estimated a loss of $515 million in tour-ism.
The everyday threat has hit down hard particularly in the Tunisian and Kenyan tourist sectors, but several other countries being affected are Morocco, Cape Verde and Uganda. European tour operators started to withdraw their holiday packag-es to some of the northern African coun-tries in response to the latest terrorist attacks, and travellers are now preferring to choose holidays closer to home. One example is Thomson and First Choice, who have cancelled all their outbound flights to Tunisia for this year’s summer season as a
Wind Turbines on Lake Turkana, Kenya
precautionary measure. Travellers with al-ready booked holidays to these destinations have been given the opportunity to amend their holiday free of charge. They are also offering additional flights from airports across Europe to destinations including the Balearic Islands, mainland Spain and Cyprus.
In most areas we see that it takes approxi-mately six months to a year for such destina-tions to recover following terrorist attacks. However, in some areas such as Mombasa, Kenya, the cumulative terrorist attacks in 2011, 2012 and 2014 has had a permanent negative influence on the tourist industry and for now Mombasa is no longer a travel-ler's choice.
Energy use and development varies widely across the African continent, with some countries exporting electricity to other near-by countries, while others lack even basic infrastructures or systems to acquire con-ventional energy.
It is therefore encouraging that project plans with environmentally cleaner energy solutions are appearing all over Africa, and we are seeing a large increase in wind- and solar power projects in Kenya and across the
South African Karoo. Several corporate wind power giants are also starting developments in Morocco, Ethiopia, Algeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Consequently, there is an increasing number of expatriates moving to these areas, which are all rural districts lacking in infrastruc-ture, medical facilities and emergency re-sponse options. This however is not an unu-sual situation for Euro-Center.
However, the need for security solutions has also become crucial with increasing num-
bers of kidnappings among expatriates in countries such as Kenya, Chad, Algeria, Libya and Nigeria. The threat from Boko Haram, Al Shabab and ISIS is becoming real as they are raising funds by kidnapping foreigners for ransom. Boko Haram, an extremist Islamic group, has been inflicting destruction and havoc not only in Nigeria, but also in Western Africa and is becoming a threat to the continent.
Since 2011 the group became more indis-criminate in its violence with a spate of bombings and kidnappings. From early 2013, the group began to spread across
Terrorist attacks and the travel industry
northern Cameroon and into border areas of Chad and Niger. Despite a military coali-tion between Ethiopia, Cameroon, Chad and Niger with the common purpose of fighting these terrorist organizations, corporate companies have been in urgent need of increased security in the field.
As many of the available security providers are local companies with questionable knowledge, experience and only basic train-ing, Euro-Center Cape Town is starting to cooperate with international security com-panies and will in the near future offer ex-pertise in security options all over Africa.
Tourists leaving after the Tunisia attacks
Euro-Center Newsletter Vol.02 Issue 03
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Euro-Center Mallorca
‘Local Assistance - Worldwide’. With offices all over the globe we really are able to pro-vide worldwide local assistance for our cus-tomers.
Each office’s cover area has their own unique cultures and regional practices which often bring with it their own unique prob-lems. This is where our professional staff come into their own.
The Euro-Center office’s have a wide range of assistance and medical claims to deal with in their daily work. A good team atmos-phere is important for an office to operate efficiently, and also for the staff to achieve incredible results. We asked our staff what it was that they found the most rewarding about working in a Euro-Center office. The following is repre-sentative of the Euro-Center workplace. This is the winner of the 2015 Quarter 2 story-telling competition.
What is the most rewarding part of working at a Euro-Center for you?
The most rewarding part of working at a Euro-Center is working in a family environment: everybody speaks to everybody and learns something new every day. For example learning different skills and new techniques from every employee in the same Euro-Center. I like the nice environment we have here in Euro-Center Mallorca, the good team work we have and how we accomplish things by working together.
One of the most important things for me in a the job is that in Euro-Center there´s always work and something to do. You will never get bored of working, because if you have fin-ished the payment batches you had assigned, then you just ask a team mate if they need your help, or just attend the phone and do customer assistance service for the policy hold-ers that call to the office.
I need to say that thanks to the Euro-Center environment I’m enjoying working as a claims handler a lot.
What do you see as the key values of Euro-Center for employees?
From my point of view these are the key Euro-Center values for employees:
* Good communication between staff. * Dedication, the importance of caring.
* Integrity and flexibility. * Good organisation
* “You are not working alone”; the family team spirit in the office.
* An open mind in expressing opinions and finding conclusions for the correct answers.
How would you define the Euro-Center spirit as experienced by you?
* I think it is defined by hard work and dedication, integrity and focus.
