GMS is here for our customers and our community. For more than 70 years, we’ve been around for good times and bad.
These are trying times for sure, on many fronts. As COVID-19 has reminded us, our world today is very small and very interconnected. Our actions affect others, so let’s make sure our impact is positive, now more than ever.
Priority one is keeping each other safe and well. That’s a long-standing commitment for us at GMS, and for the brokers and partners we work with. Our Business Continuity Plan is in full swing. Any staff member who is unwell is staying home, and we’re moving from targeted measures to isolate staff who have recently travelled or who may have been exposed to COVID-19, to broader work at home plans to help staff protect themselves and manage work and family responsibilities. Our staff who continue to work at head office are following recommended hygiene protocols.
I’m proud to see our staff embracing ongoing changes and the challenges of working remotely with flexibility, good humour and a deep commitment to the customers who rely on our services and benefits. As you can appreciate, our travel insurance customers are top of mind these days, as they make arrangements to follow the Federal Government’s recommendation to return home as soon as possible. But our Health customers – whether they have individual coverage, or are part of a group or employer benefit plan – need to know it’s business as usual in terms of processing and paying claims. And we’re also helping our Immigrants and Visitors to Canada customers make sure they have coverage in place for the uncertain days ahead.
We’re working hard to manage response times in our Call Centre, and for email inquiries. We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding. If your inquiry isn’t time-sensitive, please know we will get to you as soon as we can. You can reduce wait times for your health claims by taking a few moments to go online to www.gms.ca and sign up for a MY GMS Account. That will give you the ability to file claims online and sign up for direct deposit of claim payments.
At GMS, we promote balancing five key dimensions of wellness – physical, mental, intellectual, social and financial. Finding that balance to maintain overall wellness is more important than ever now. Beyond taking the recommended precautions related to COVID-19, I encourage you to take care of your physical health with good nutrition, physical activity and adequate sleep – those are also great ways to help manage stress and anxiety. And in the face of social distancing, it’s a good time to reach out virtually to our social networks, and get reacquainted with the good old-fashioned telephone call – especially if you have elderly family and friends who may feel particularly isolated these days. We may not be able to gather together physically, but let’s make a point of connecting virtually. By sharing our concerns and our laughter, we remind each other we’re not alone.
In the coming days, the GMS team is continuing business as usual as much as possible for all our customers. We’ve halted in-person counter service at our Regina Head Office to do our part to limit the spread of the virus, but otherwise we’re online and also ready to help you by email and phone. Thanks again for your patience with longer than usual wait times. We will also reach out to provide updates whenever necessary on www.gms.ca, our GMS social channels – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram – and through ongoing email messages to customers and partners.
In the meantime, I encourage everyone to follow the sound, evidence-based advice provided on federal and provincial government websites. Let’s do all we can to take care of each other in the days ahead. We will come through this as a team, a community and a country.
President & CEO, John Salmond