Interview with Florence Jean, Head of Health Product Line

What services does EA tend to provide in the health sphere?

We are a health services provider, and proud play that role in Generali Group.

To deliver health services, we rely on our 370+ internal medical professionals and our medical network of more than 750,000 doctors, medical facilities and emergency units in every corner of the world.

Our health solutions are complementary to the national public health system and can vary on country level: from home visits in Poland and in Portugal - respectively more than 20,000 and 8,000 per year - or teleconsultation in Italy, France and in more than 15 other countries in Europe, Asia and America.

We have also developed expertise with in-house specialized nurses in health coaching, physiotherapists or sport scientists to improve the recovery of injured people after an accident as well as psychologists to support people presenting mental disorders after a stressful event (burnouts, or the consequences of lockdown due to COVID-19).

Generali is our first partner, but we also collaborate with banks and financial institutions, large corporations and SMEs, and health stakeholders, all looking at improving the condition of their customers, members and employees.

Our mission “from distress to relief” is at the heart of the solutions that we find together with our partners.

What is the approach taken by Europ Assistance?

Firstly, our service comes with a culture. Not only are we experts in this field but our company culture “We Care” means that all our employees from the doctor, the assistance operator up to the CEO all work with the understanding that we are Caring, Available, Reliable and Easy to work with. Four key attributes that really qualify our services and approach to customers and patients.

How is Europ Assistance reacting to the COVID-19 epidemic from a health perspective?

We can look at this from four directions:

Protect our employees and families
Protect our customers
Support the crisis efforts in any way that we can
Prepare the future, accompanying people up to the end of the lockdown and continuing being present aside them afterwards for their health concern.

We are lucky to have a strong internal medical network. They have been essential to helping us plan ahead and protect the continuity of our business while keeping our employees safe through remote working, education on hygiene and protective measures such as extensive cleaning of our offices and medical triage.

Of course, now many of us are working from home, our specialisation in medical support is also key – for our customers, our clients and society.

For our employees and our customers, including Generali employees and agents we have set-up special COVID-19 hotlines to help people get the right advice and guidance when they need it most. These are in countries all over the world and act as a backbone of what we can do from a social and medical operation perspective. It’s impressive. We also offer psychological support and in some cases make use of our concierge, helping people with their everyday life throughout the crisis – including doctors.

We’re also lucky to be able to contribute to society. In some of the European countries hardest hit by the crisis, we’ve offered our hotline to help the public health authorities.

We have also donated 15 ventilators to health authorities in Italy, France and Spain and in France in particular, other medical equipment such as oxygen and surgical masks.

Finally, but very importantly, we continue to serve our customers via teleconsultation and medical assistance services, including patients’ follow-up. Teleconsultation has increased substantially in recent weeks, easing the burden on the public health system. Our 370+ medical professionals are real heroes. They are working hard for our customers and employees, but we shouldn’t also forget that many are also working on-duty for the health authorities as part of this crisis – saving lives, day after day around the world.

For us, everyday is World Health Day.