In a statement last Tuesday, the law firm said the CBA had been “highly selective” in the types of claims it chose to review as part of the CommInsure-commissioned Deloitte review into denied claims, and noted that no clients or claims staff were interviewed.
Maurice Blackburn insurance principal Josh Mennen said Commonwealth Bank’s review was “completely unacceptable”.
“While we welcome CBA releasing more information with respect to CommInsure’s claims handling, it is disappointing to see that this continues to show a failure from the organisation to learn from the mistakes of the past in acknowledging poor claims handling and treatment of members,” Mr Mennen said.
On Wednesday, the Commonwealth Bank responded and said all information was made available to Deloitte to make a decision on the claim.
It said Deloitte interviewed claims staff and its review process “involved full access to data, claims files, emails, customer correspondence, doctors’ reports etc”.
“It is entirely incorrect to say there has been no contact with customers,” CBA said in a statement.
“If through this [review] process Deloitte felt that more information was required, whether that be from the customer or from CommInsure, particularly if they felt it was needed to decide on a claim, they would request it of us.
“CommInsure would contact the customer (or through their trustee) and provide that information to Deloitte. It is not appropriate for Deloitte to contact our customers directly.”
CBA also responded to Mr Mennen’s concerns surrounding the comprehensiveness of the review, saying both ASIC and APRA were provided with all reports and reviews relating to CommInsure claims – including Deloitte, DLA Piper and EY.
“We believe this work is the largest independent review of insurance claims ever conducted in Australian history,” the bank said.
“At the parliamentary joint committee on corporations and financial services inquiry into the life insurance industry on 24 February 2017, APRA stated that it is ‘satisfied that the reviews are robust, complete and independent’.”
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