To stop customers from leaving, Medibank offers free annual dental check-up

In April 2014, to promote the Australian Dental Association 2015 National Congress, a burlesque video was uploaded on YouTube featuring female strippers. On Monday, Medibank tried to stop customers from leaving the private health insurance giant by offering free yearly dental check-ups.

The offer of full refund on an annual dental check-up applies to Medibank’s 2.7 million customers with extra policies out of 3.8 million customers in Australia. The company is expected to spend $40 milion over the next three years for the free dental check-up.

The freebie is part of customer demand for more value from their health insurance, says David Koczkar chief customer officer of Medibank. He adds the company would announce more new benefits in the coming months.

To avail of the dental check-up, Medibank customers should have an extra policy for more than two months. They could have the check-up at one of the 6,300 dentists of the health insurer. The freebie would save Medibank policy holders about $400 a year for a family of four.

A recent survey says almost 70 percent of Australians with private health insurance were considering downgrading or stopping their policies in the last year because of price hikes and diminishing value for money. The number of Australians with hospital cover was down to 11.3 million people, or 47 percent of the population, from 47.2 percent or 13.4 million people. Those who have extra policies were down 0.1 percentage points in March to 13.4 million people, 55.7 percent of the Australian population.

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Source: Medibank