I wrote to API on their website and copy/paste from prune and tell them from me on Pprune is questions about the letter I receive; is it fine to ask for answers to them?
Thanks for taking the time to write us; to be honest we wish more guys with questions would just ask us instead of asking each other.
(Q). That letter, quoted above from API (if true) illustrates what's gone wrong.
(A). I don’t follow Pprune but sounds like he’s using a variation on the famous, “Liar liar, pants on fire” offense. Cunning.
(Q). LIPS/API was set up, around 2004 and promoted as a program to exclusively look after emma-rates pilots. Non-profit mutual. With Directors who were also the same.
(A). We are still a non-profit mutual fund. When LIPS (the original plan) was set up it was, indeed, set up by current Emirates pilots. As time has gone on some of them have moved on as well to other careers or even just to spend time with family; this API stuff eats up a lot of time! As for me, I resigned from Emirates last year because the flying hours were just too much. I stayed with API because I like doing it and helping the pilots.
(Q). Harvey Watt were HIRED as a commercial medical specialist service provider, year-to-year, simply to make medical recommendations (NOT decisions). The Directors would then make the decision. Looking after pilots. Many joined, in good faith, on this basis.
(A). Back when LIPS started, pilots making claims presented their medical records to their fellow pilots who would then make decisions with no medical training to back them up. Furthermore, there was no standard to safeguard protected health information. This is in no way a slight against the original founders; they were just doing what they thought was right to help their fellow pilots.
In practical terms, that means if you were to file a claim you’d get your full medical file from the clinic, bring it to their houses, let them read your entire medical history from the first day you went into the clinic with symptoms of an STD (for example) til now. Then, having read your entire file they are required to make a decision on a complex medical problem based on reports written by doctors. I don’t know about you but I don’t want my fellow pilots looking at my medical records, I don’t want them making judgements about my medical problems. I don’t want them talking to their wives about me, or to other pilots I fly with, starting every conversation with, “Mate, you must promise not to tell anyone but…” (I know, that could never happen because pilots never gossip).
Regarding the pilots making the decisions, could this happen? “Mate, I know this guy, been flying with him for donkey’s years. He’s a good guy! His record is a bit thin but let’s take care of him” or the opposite, “Mate, flew with him, he’s a tw*t, I say don’t pay him.”
Having pilots in charge of your medical records and making decisions based on them was deemed, by everyone involved, to be an idea whose time had come to go away. The directors at the time looked at a group of medical providers and contracted with Harvey Watt & Co. in the USA; they have legal regulations regarding protected health information and their doctors are aviation specialists. They are paid a flat rate / pilot / month to review the medical records for completeness, check if it’s a pre-existing condition or Self-Reported Disability in accordance with the API Rules and forward it to the Trust.
(Q). If API is now clearly stating Harvey Watt is calling all the shots on which pilot gets paid, that is a total reversal of the original intent. Tail-wagging-the-dog. And all without proper notice to Members. Wake up. A single person, PD (shown in weird video above) is making all these changes, unauthorised by members. Same guy, PD, wrote the content of that letter. He's not even an emma-rates pilot any more.
(A). We have not stated in any way that Harvey Watt is calling the shots on which pilots get paid. They simply make a medical recommendation, taking the API Rules into account, and forward it to the Trustee. It is the Trustee’s legal responsibility to make the decision.
The guy who wrote this blames me, alone, for making all these changes. Of course it’s nonsense. No decision made by the managers of API is made unilaterally. Every decision we make from its birth as an idea to its final delivery is discussed with the entire team which includes Harvey Watt & Co. (for medical questions or clarity), our attorneys (for questions on UAE law), our contracted insurance company (for questions regarding life insurance) and the API Trust in Guernsey U.K. (for matters of the Trust, since they are the final arbiter and by law have the responsibility for the Plan and the fund).
I did write the content of the letter you received this week. I’m the guy charged with, for lack of a better term, corporate communications. I wrote a draft, I sent it to the other managers as well as to our accountants (for the financial data), Harvey Watt & Co. (for the medical view on Self-Reported Disability), the actuary in South Africa regarding the number of un-explainable claims), The Trust (for review regarding their mention) and the investment platform (for returns information). After everyone had provided their input we asked several line-serving Emirates pilots to read it and give their feedback. Only after that process was complete did we release it to the membership. FYI that email was months in the making and was viewed by numerous sets of eyes and no one picked up on the confusion point regarding self-reported benefits. So, I apologize to you for that. If you're also confused, the only change to benefits is for those pilots who submit claims that fall under Self-Reported Disabilities. Everything else is still til age 65.
Regarding the ‘allegation’ of “unauthorized by members”, I’m not sure what that means. Did he mean the members told us not to do something and we did? Or did he mean we didn’t ask the members’ approval before we did something? I prefer to think it’s the latter since rarely do we even hear from the members on policy and when we do we take those very seriously. If he’s trying to say we don’t communicate enough, maybe that is a valid point. But we don’t really hear that from the members. We’d be happy to communicate more but most of the stuff we do is just daily ‘day-to-day’ and, to be honest, is pretty dull. That being said, when we do make a big decision we make every attempt to notify you as quickly as we can; we put it in the medical newsletter and deliver it to your mailbox or, as in the most recent case we did a direct email and we always post it on the NEWS in the website. In the past we sent out surveys; shocking how few people even took the time to answer! We can do surveys again, if enough people suggest it. Its not free but if that’s what the members want that’s what we want.
(Q). The other pilot 'Consultants' are either; walking away or doing nothing.
(A). API is like any organization made up of people. They sign on, they do their work, they make a decision to go do something else. There is no one “doing nothing!”. On the contrary (and on this I will speak for the others) not one of us had any idea the colossal amount of time we would be spending on this when we approached LIPS and said, “Can I help?”
(Q). Why would any pilot hand their fate & family's financial future over to such a commercial company, when the plan is neither underwritten or insured. A single successful lawsuit, or even just the cost defending decisions can deplete the entire fund.
(A). We’re a non-profit, mutual benefit fund and we exist solely to help Emirates pilots. Everyone makes their own decision on their financial future but I can tell you there’s a few SFIs at Emirates and quite a few former Emirates pilots who were damn glad they had LIPS / API when they lost their medicals. If you haven’t yet, please visit the Claims section on our website and see just how many of your former pilots we’re helping.
(Q). If Harvey Watt is making decisions, then surely legal liability should be with them, and the fund not be using pilot members' money to defend against legal action.
(A). Harvey Watt & Co. isn’t making decisions. They’re only making a recommendation.
(Q). And why are offshore API pilot 'Consultants' needed or paid, if all decisions are outsourced & fully automatic?
(A). It’s true, we have set up a system whereby the medical recommendations are handled by Harvey Watt & Co. and sent directly to the Trustee who makes the decision based on the recommendation and we did that because we looked at the Plan as it was at the time and asked, ‘what happens if we (the managers of the plan) all die at the same time because we’re in the same car going for lunch? Who’s going to take care of the pilots?’ Under the current system, were we all to be…terminally unavailable…pilots could still send their records to Harvey Watt & Co. who could make a recommendation and forward it to the Trustee. We’ve done our primary duty to the pilots.
However, and this goes to the question of why we (or someone) is needed:
What happens when Harvey Watt & Co. decide they want to re-negotiate their fee per pilot? Who is going to do that for the members? Who would Harvey Watt & Co. even contact? That same question now goes for all our service providers; there are many and they constantly change.
What else do we, the consultants, do? A short list, off the top of my head would be:
Ensure website is functioning properly. Ensure changes to the website are properly tested and validated. Ensure “Emirates” is spelled correctly, not “emma-rates”
Answer this question.
Answer over a thousand questions like this every year on all subjects.
Manage the member’s resignation from Emirates in regards to Leave Service Benefit calculations and gather the required documents from the members to present to the Trustee when it’s time to approve the LSB payment.
Track the members from their first contact with us when their medical record is suspended.
Ensure the Trustee is supplied with the proper documentation as required by the Rules. Maintain the documentation!
Ensure an Annual Report is completed. Ensure the completed Annual Report is distributed. Make a decision that in the past printing the Annual Report was expensive and generally wound up in the bins at HQ so why don’t we just direct mail and post on the website and save money.
Invest the members’ funds. However, prior to investing the members’ funds, find a way to be able to legally and safely invest the members’ funds.
Sadly, to work with the families when there has been a death of a member or spouse. To help them collect their life-insurance from a faceless insurance company.
To give daily direction to the accounting company on policy changes, website problems, data entry problems.
Track who has (and has not) joined the API Trust and send reminders.
Send payment reminders. And Final Reminders.
When a member shows us that there's something wrong in the Rules, re-write the Rules.
When we see there's something more that could be done, do it. Recently one of our beneficiaries passed away and the decision was to continue benefits payments for an additional three months to help the spouse through the process. Would a survey been the proper forum to ask the members should we do this? Your guess is as good as mine, but I doubt it.
The list goes on and on, really. Hopefully this has been helpful to you; if there’s anything else, please don’t hesitate to write.