Insurer bids for PI-insurance cover for optometrists; resisted by OA

The bid presents a danger for Optometry Australia, which has provided PII for its mbers through insurer Avant for the past 15 years with hardly any opposition from other insurers.
According to Aon, it is presently providing PII cover for 300 optometrists, which would mean a decrease in revenue of about $600,000 a year that would largely gone to OA. If, say, 1,000 mbers of OA decided to take out such cover it would mean a loss of about $2 million revenue for the organisation.
Aon is offering 14 months cover for the price of 12 and says its PII cover meets the requirents of the Optometry Board of Australia.
The prium for Aon’s cover “is as little as $759” per optometrist, while Avant’s prium for cover it provides to OA mbers has never been revealed. The latter is deducted from annual mbership fees.
In an ail to mbers headed ‘Your mbership at work – more than just professional indnity insurance’, the chief executive officer of OA, Ms Genevieve Quilty, said in an ail to mbers on 19 May: “Recently you may have received an unsolicited direct marketing ail for a professional indnity insurance product from a general insurer [Aon, which provides professional-indnity cover as one of its many activities: Ed.].??
“Optometry Australia would like to assure you that as a financial mber of our organisation you are automatically provided with an Avant comprehensive insurance policy.” ??