1 day Ago By Brianna Boecker
Chief executive Sheena Jack has announced she’s retiring from her role at HCF, one of Australia’s biggest health insurers. After eight years leading the not-for-profit fund, Jack is leaving to spend more time with family and will be succeeded by the company’s chief operating officer Lorraine Thomas.Jack started with HCF in 2006 as the Chief Financial Officer before moving up the ranks to become CEO.
Over her 18-year career with the company, she has grown HCF to become one out four biggest in the county, with more than 2 million members. At the beginning of her career, Jack worked with Ernst and Young as a Senior Manager. She’s also held leadership positions with IAG Financial Services, Clearview Wealth Limited, MBF and Uscom Ltd.
Known as one of the country’s most private executives, Jack gave a rare interview recently where she revealed her retirement, alongside some other warnings of the rising costs of healthcare.Jack said the hospital system must address soaring costs, even if it means fewer beds available, as she warned against private equity being allowed to buy into healthcare. “We have a structure that we currently operate with that is not really set up for the future of where healthcare is going.
We need to look at how to match supply and demand from a number of hospital beds point of view because we need to have hospitals in the right place as well,” Jack told the Autralian Finanical Review.The issue of the role private hospitals play in Australia’s healthcare system, as well as rising healthcare costs, is set to be a hot topic in the upcoming federal election. Health Minister Mark Butler has said an investigation by the Health Department will look into “price gouging” from private health funds on insurance premiums.
Butler has said private health funds, like HCF, continue to exploit a regulatory loophole to raise premiums. Called “product phoenixing”, the practice involves health funds closing a policy and opening an almost identical one at a higher price. In December, the Commonwealth Ombudsman published a report showing the practice was widespread.
In her recent interview, Jack said she was alarmed by the attack on health insurers profits, saying there was a lack of understanding about how the relationship between funds and hospitals is conducted. This month, HCF increased the price of its gold policy by 35 per cent, after closing its existing policy and forcing new gold members to take out extras. Jack argued that when it came to looking after patient health, insurers had more incentive than hospitals, which charge on the volume of procedures and stays.
Last week, allegations arose that Jack allegedly sacked a potential leadership rival at HCF for breaching the health insurance giant’s code of conduct. This was amid an unfinished investigation, but Jack denies allegations that she froze out the senior manager, and says the ongoing court case against HCF is not linked to her decision to leave the company. The post HCF CEO Sheena Jack announces retirement from one of Australia’s largest health insurers appeared first on Women's Agenda.
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