From the Executive Manager. Glenn Seri

Welcome to the Winter / Spring edition of Living Healthy!

With a healthy dose of understatement, it is fair to say a lot has changed since the last edition of Living Healthy! I hope this edition finds you and your loved ones well and in good spirits.

The impacts of Covid-19 are ongoing and although Australia has done well so far on the health aspects of the pandemic, we are not out of the woods yet. The economic and social impacts from the pandemic are continuing and will certainly shape our lives for the foreseeable future.

Queensland Country Health Fund staff were able to transition very quickly to working from home and our overall Member service remained unchanged during these trying circumstances. We continue to offer financial hardship packages to our Members and I encourage any Member who is feeling the financial strain due to Covid-19 to contact the Health Fund as soon as possible.

As you may be aware, Queensland Country also delayed our April 1 premium increase to October 1 due to the uncertainty around the financial impact of Covid-19 on our Members. The hope is that by October 1 most Members will have returned to work and be able to accommodate the new premium.

From the Executive Manager

We were still able to implement some positive changes to policies on April 1 including improving the simplicity of our benefits and optical benefit improvements including an Optical Rollover Benefit. Prior to October 1 we will communicate with those Members who were scheduled for a premium increase and reconfirm the new premium amount.

During February our new Mobile App was launched and was well received by both Members and staff, if you haven’t had a chance to have a look and explore please download it from the Apple App store or GooglePlay store today. The coming year will see further enhancements to the App including a new “secure Inbox” feature which will allow Queensland Country to send important information to Members without the need for letters.

In mid March we opened our newest dental practice, Queensland Country Dental Mackay located at 24 Sydney Street. Unfortunately, the opening was short lived with Covid-19 restrictions implemented and immediately all dental practices across Australia were limited to providing emergency only dental services. The restrictions on dental services have now been lifted and our Mackay team are ready and looking forward to seeing patients. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Dr Isabella Ihle, Dariannah, Sam and Melina to our Queensland Country family. If you have any general dental needs, please contact the Mackay team on 1300 555 376.

Speaking of our dental team, during the restrictions on dental services, some of our dental staff were given the opportunity to assist in other areas of the business including our Member Care Team. The Member Care Team was an initiative put into place during restrictions to check in on some of our older Members and to see how they were coping during the height of isolation. Whilst our Members really appreciated these calls, our staff were the real winners. The team enjoyed the opportunity to chat to Members, listen to their personal stories and hear about their long standing history with Queensland Country.

Let’s hope the remainder of 2020 sees our economy bounce back strongly and that we continue to keep the spread of Covid-19 under control.

Healthy Regards,

Glenn Seri Executive Manager