Mutual company, Equitable Life of Canada announced Feb. 14 that it is making changes to its participating whole life policy product, the Equimax Estate Builder, making a new 10-pay feature available in addition to existing plans.
In critical illness, meanwhile, the company has launched new EquiLiving critical illness (CI) enhancements, adding acquired brain injury as a covered condition, introducing new pay options, coverage up to age 75 or life, and eliminating the age restriction for claiming loss of independent existence.
Donna Carbell, senior vice president of individual insurance with Equitable says the options introduced to the participating whole life product were brought about in response to client demand for a 10-year premium payment option. In critical illness, she says the changes are a refresh to reflect a wider range of covered conditions. “Critical illness is evolving as diagnosis and treatments are evolving,” she says. The company has also removed its 30-day survival period for all non-cardiovascular covered conditions.
In addition, the company has chosen to work with Waterloo, Ontario based Cloud DX, which provides remote patient monitoring “to virtually manage chronic disease, enable aging in place and deliver hospital quality, post-surgical care in the home.” Effective immediately, Equitable plans to offer the service to all CI claimants, regardless of when they initially purchased their policies. The service will be provided at no cost for six months to any client approved for a full benefit CI insurance claim. The company would only say the cost of a continuing subscription with Cloud DX would depend on the customer’s specific needs, adding that Cloud DX is committed to making the service affordable and accessible.
Carbell says historically CI policies offered second opinion services. “That was really important 15 or 20 years ago when there were challenges diagnosing,” she says. “Amazing diagnostic advancements have really eliminated the need for that.” Being a mutual company, she adds, allows the company to prioritize client care. “We wanted to focus on our client’s holistic health. This service is about supporting them at that time of need.”
She says clients who sign on with Cloud DX receive a remote patient monitoring kit which includes a wireless blood pressure monitor, weight scale, pulse oximeter which measures blood oxygen saturation and heart rate, and a thermometer, all of which work with a smart device app. “All of this is privacy compliant on the healthcare side,” Carbell adds. “Prior to this, Cloud DX has been partnering with different hospitals across Canada. This service was only available through hospitals. We’re the first insurance company in Canada to be able to offer it outside of the hospital environment.” She adds that aside from some customer satisfaction information, none of the information about a client’s health is being provided back to the insurer.
“We wanted to help, post claim,” she says. “We are really investing significantly in our digital strategy, and we wanted something that would align with that. We wanted something that was Canadian based and aligned with our values, and we really wanted something that was unique in the market."
