Diary of an Insurer: Charles Taylor's Nadeem Sheikh-Ali

Monday

I’m only a 15-minute drive from the office, but I’m up early to take stock of the week ahead. 

I’ll be spending most of my time account managing and overseeing our medical assistance delivery for around 30 insurer clients and their corporate customers. 

These clients cover accident and health, high net worth and personal lines, and their customers range from blue-chip businesses to NGOs. 

Because we support policyholders when they’re ill, injured or in difficulty abroad, we’re a very human company, and I’m excited to get back to the buzz of our 24/7 operations.

There’s a lot of anticipation today. Not least because our medical, travel and ops teams are finalising arrangements for an air ambulance to transfer a sick customer from a remote island to a “centre of medical excellence”.  

As is often the case with global assistance, there are challenges – not least finding an air ambulance able to travel to such a remote location. But the teams make it happen.

Later, it makes my day when I’m sent a photo of the patient safely on the plane. I’m so grateful we’re able to support people like this at some of their trickiest times.

Tuesday

Managing our travel risk team also falls under my remit. So, this morning I’m talking to our risk manager about creating an interactive tool for our country intelligence and travel risk library. 

The aim is to give our operations teams easy access to as much information as possible about country-specific issues and infrastructures, so they can best support policyholders abroad.

After a quick lunch at my desk, I’m then running an awareness session with a group of underwriters about what we do for their corporate customers. It helps them understand how the medical assistance process works, which in turn helps with their policy sales.

With underwriters still in mind, I later apply a requested update to one insurer’s version of our automated medical screening tool. The tool gives their underwriters an accurate view of policyholders’ medical risks at point of sale, and the update doesn’t take long. 

Back home in the evening, I head straight for the kitchen. My dad’s from Jordan, and I love creating dishes from that part of the world. I’d say cooking is my favourite antidote to a hard day’s work.

Wednesday

We’ve just taken on a new insurer client with customers in Australia, so I spend some of the morning meeting with a trusted medical provider in the area, making sure everything’s in place for policyholders who may need their care. 

Our networking team joins us too, ensuring that billing arrangements are all tied up. This means policyholders will get quick access to care without the hospital having to wait for payment guarantees.  

With other new corporate clients joining us soon, I check our systems are live and ready for them and grab a lunchtime sandwich at my desk. 

Midway, I’m asked to step in after a high-net-worth customer needing a medical transfer has some special requests. 

The extra expense involved in meeting these requests means I need to call the customer’s insurer to get clearance. Fortunately, they quickly agree and we get the medical transfer in motion. 

Thursday

This morning I’m with a client from the oil and gas industry. His offshore staff rely on us for medical assistance and I’ve been asked by his insurer (our client) to talk him through the assistance process. 

It’s a productive meeting and he says he had no idea we could support his employees with so much.

I’m not a fan of long lunch breaks, but when my meeting’s over, the lake outside our office lures me out for a 30-minute stroll. It’s great to have this on our doorstep for a quick head clear.

I spend the afternoon running a session with our strategic security partners, who’ve come over to fill in our medical and travel teams on the latest news about their business and how we collaborate. 

Not long ago, with this partner’s help, we evacuated some injured corporate policyholders from a war-torn area. Today we’re filming an interview with the colleague who managed the transfer, for a video case study. I can’t wait to see the final footage.

Friday

It’s not often that I’m greeted by a raccoon as I arrive at the office, but today’s the day…

It’s actually our senior nurse team manager in fancy dress, as part of a ‘rabies awareness’ session. 

The rationale behind the costume is that rabies is spread by animal bites, and during the day there are rabies quizzes and presentations to reinforce our call handlers’ understanding about the disease and help them support customers at risk. 

As the week comes to an end, it’s time for me to finalise plans for our trip to an international travel and health insurance conference, starting on Sunday. 

It’s a big event in the medical assistance calendar and we’ll be meeting partners and providers from air ambulance, medical, logistics and other companies.

When I finally get home, it doesn’t take long to switch from work mode to thoughts of what my partner and I should catch at the cinema tomorrow. Gladiator II is definitely a contender.