Could you share a bit of your professional background, and how you came to your current role?

I began my insurance career in 1994 and quickly found a niche in the travel insurance sector. Our travel insurance distribution division, CanAm Insurance, rapidly took shape, which eventually led to the development of the assistance, claims and cost containment third-party administrator (TPA) Active Care Management (ACM) being scaled.

In March 2018, I sold CanAm and ACM to Global Excel Management (GEM) and joined the GEM Executive team. In July 2023, I departed Global Excel and founded Xodus.

What made you want to start fresh with Xodus?

Xodus was founded to rectify the legacy challenges that exist within the Canadian travel insurance space. Slow, antiquated interaction from sales through to claims settlements negatively impacts the customer journey. This has been highlighted as we exited the global pandemic and travel restarted. Customers and insurers have expectations that are not being met, and Xodus is correcting this.

What is the company doing to differentiate itself from its competitors in the market?

Xodus has created a digital-first strategy. Clients can communicate and have claims paid in the manner they desire. Voice, email, webchat, SMS/iMessage, and WhatsApp channels are completely integrated into our infrastructure and communication platform. Digital payment solutions for both clients and providers are also paramount to our deliverables. We have also implemented a multitude of generative AI bots to assist clients in their desire to self-serve. Our sole focus is to delight customers by exceeding their expectations and allowing them to be part of the journey.

How is Canada’s travel insurance market changing, and what are the major opportunities for business development that you can see in the future?

Like other markets, Canada is seeing many changes post-pandemic. Travel patterns have changed (geographically and length of trip), expectations of policyholders have changed, and TPAs have not kept pace. As a result, insurance regulators in Canada are very focused on the customer experience. Additionally, inflation has caused an increase in medical and non-medical claims costs. Xodus sees all of these issues as significant opportunities to improve the customer journey and change the status quo.

Snowbirds are still flying south for winter sun; are you seeing increasing numbers of senior travellers, and what are the specific challenges insurers are facing when it comes to covering this group of travellers?

Snowbirds are indeed focused on getting away after being unable to do so through the border closures and airline limitations during the Covid years. This demographic highlights an older age cohort with more comorbidities, causing medical episodes to crop up during travel. In addition, while Canadian insurers have the option to mitigate their loss by repatriating a claimant back to Canada, limited bed availability in Canada continues to be a significant challenge in servicing this group.

Some general stats on travel from Statistics Canada include:

• There was a 21.6% increase in travel to the US from Oct to Dec 2022 to 2023. Travel to the US during this quarter also returned to pre-pandemic levels for the first time. However, the profile of travel has shifted away from business travel to leisure
• There was a marked increase in ‘overseas’ travel (outside the US) from 2022 to 2023 (up 69.7%). Mexico (411,100 visits), the Dominican Republic (222,900), and France (180,000) were the top three overseas countries visited in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Cost containment for international insurers with exposure to US hospital bills remains a key aspect of operations; how does Xodus view the different methods of cost containment in terms of their efficacy?

We feel that anyone who is not leveraging AI and data integrations to support adjudication will be defenceless against fraudulent claims

Providing best-in-class cost reduction strategies – especially in the US – is something we pay very close attention to. Understanding the geographic differences from coast to coast, hospital cost-to-charge ratios, centres of excellence versus centres of exorbitance, and meaningful network partnerships, are some of the ways we navigate the challenges and save money for our clients.

Our management team has a long history of working through the complexities associated with cost containment, both in the US and globally. At Xodus, we take the approach that cost containment begins with accurate underwriting, followed closely by proactive and efficient medical case management. We have a team of medical professionals that understand how important it is to balance care with cost and know how to proceed with difficult medical situations that are in the best interest of both patient and payer.  

How is Xodus making use of new tech to ensure policies are meeting the needs of your customers, and that service provision levels are as high as possible?

Modern digital tools providing clients with real-time interaction and claims settlement when the need arises is the basis of the Xodus model. The days of interacting by way of voice only are long past and like everything else in our world, immediate resolution of any issue is the desire of the consumer, especially while travelling. Xodus ensures that our tools assist in achieving these objectives. The tools in our toolbox include self-service sales portals, an omnichannel contact centre, auto adjudication of low-dollar, low-complexity claims, fully integrated mobile app technology, global telemedicine solutions and robust global provider networks to ensure optimal client satisfaction. Bolted on to all our digital solutions is prompt payment technology for instant or near-instant claims settlements.

As a result of new tools, the typical call centre measurements of average speed
of answer and telephone service factor no longer accurately measure customer satisfaction. Xodus continually reviews net promoter and customer satisfaction scores from every interaction in every channel in real time, allowing a more accurate measure of service delivery.

With new tech inevitably comes new problems, as integration of legacy systems takes time and effort; what challenges have you had to overcome in this regard since you started operating?

As with any product or service, changing the status quo takes time. Our biggest challenge has been deciding on which technologies are most attractive to insurers and policyholders and ensuring we focus on the right deliverables to fix broken processes delivered by legacy systems and workflows. This is a continual process of operational review and improvement and a foundational pillar of the Xodus way.

How do you balance the need for “lightning-fast claims settlement”, as you state on your website, with the need to keep an eye on the potential for fraudulent claims submissions?

We do not believe these goals conflict. Through our AI-supported adjudication engine, we can complete advanced analysis and logic-based techniques to interpret events, automate decisions and initiate actions. Xodus complements these systems with human-based processes where appropriate to speed up processing times and mitigate fraud.

All of this can be done while providing the customer experience and speed that claimants demand. We feel that anyone who is not leveraging AI and data integration to support adjudication will be defenseless against fraudulent claims. Manual processes can lead to errors and backlogs – particularly with the volume fluctuations that are common in travel insurance.

What are your hopes for the future of Xodus, and indeed the North American travel insurance market as a whole?

The mission of Xodus is to ensure the customer experience in the Canadian travel insurance space is exceptional. For too long we have forced customers to work within a limited capability model, and Xodus is changing the game.