With a growing demand to make claims payment faster, easier and environmentally sustainable, Sun Life Financial Inc. will implement its e-payment standard.
This method will now be the preferred setup for paying benefit claims through direct deposit for new plan sponsor accounts and at policy renewal for existing sponsors.
For plan members, this eliminates the process of receiving and depositing cheques, and replaces it with payments being processed and deposited into their bank account usually within 48 hours.
Eighty-five per cent of Sun Life (TSX:SLF) clients believe offering a benefits plan with direct deposit is very important, according to a recent Sun Life Financial survey. The same percentage of clients also said it has increased their employees’ perceived value of their group benefits plan. For the one in six Canadians who has coverage with Sun Life for benefits like their prescription drugs or paramedical coverage, it means millions of these claims are processed and paid electronically very quickly, easily and without wasting paper.
“We have seen a significant increase in employees with Sun Life Group Benefits going paperless. In 2011, Sun Life received 2.5 million e-claims and we expect to reach over 4 million by the end of 2012,” says Dave Jones, vice president, market development, group benefits, Sun Life Financial Canada. “This is good news, because according to our survey of employees belonging to group plans, those who use e-claims are overall significantly more satisfied with their plan than those who use paper claims.”