Customer Charter and Action Plan
Customer Charter - June 2025
Our mission
We are committed to providing high-quality services that meet your needs. We promise to:
- provide customers with clear, timely, and accurate information.
- provide services to all customers equally, accommodating their diverse needs.
- treat all customers politely and fairly.
- investigate all queries or complaints that customers submit to us.
- listen to our customers and develop our services in response.
We are committed to following the government’s 12 Guiding Principles of Quality Customer Service for Customers and Clients of the Public Service.
We are a public body to which the provisions of the Freedom of Information Acts and the Data Protection Acts apply.
What you can expect from us
We know that the health insurance market is complex and that it can be difficult to navigate. We aim to help customers understand health insurance products and to increase customer awareness of their rights. We do this by:
- providing clear, timely, and accurate information about health insurance by phone, email, and post.
- providing clear and accurate information about health insurance on our website and ensuring that it is up to date.
- hosting a free online comparison tool on our website that customers can use to compare health insurance products independently.
How to contact us
You can contact us by phone, email or post. We are open from 9:30am to 5:00pm from Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays.
You can also make an appointment to come to our offices. If you wish to visit our offices to avail of our services, please book an appointment by contacting info@hia.ie. Please note that this service is by appointment only and is available on Mondays and Tuesdays only.
You can visit our website www.hia.ie anytime for free and accurate information about health insurance. We generally do not reply to messages or comments on social media.
Contact details
Phone: (01) 406 0080
Email: info@hia.ie
Address: The Health Insurance Authority, Beaux Lane House, Mercer Street Lower, D02 DH60.
When to expect an answer
We aim to respond quickly to all queries and complaints. We are committed to the following standards of service:
Phone
- As much as possible, we will answer your query during your first phone call. If we miss your call and you leave a voicemail, we will call you back within two working days.
- If we need more time to investigate your query, we will take your contact information and contact you by phone or email with an answer.
- We will tell you approximately how long it will take for you to hear from us, or we will arrange to call you at a time that suits you.
- We aim to fully answer all standard queries within 5 working days, and all complex queries within 15 working days. We will let you know if we need more time to answer your query.
- We will give you the name of the person dealing with your query in case you need to call again.
Email/post
- We will acknowledge your email or letter within three working days of receiving it.
- If we need more time to investigate your query, we will tell you when you can expect to hear from us.
- We aim to fully answer all standard queries within 5 working days, and all complex queries within 15 working days. We will let you know if we need more time to answer your query.
- We will give you the name of the person dealing with your query in case you need to contact us again.
If another organisation is more suited to answer your query, we will give you the contact details of that organisation.
What we expect from you
To make our services better and to ensure good working conditions for our staff, we expect our customers to:
- treat our staff in a respectful manner.
- provide accurate information.
- respect our opening times and standards of service.
Access and equality
We are committed to:
- ensuring that there is no discrimination on grounds of gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religious belief, age, disability, race or membership of the Traveller community, as laid down in the relevant legislation.
- meeting the needs of Irish speakers by publishing key documents in Irish and making every effort to accommodate customers who wish to conduct their business in Irish.
- respecting our customers’ privacy.
Feedback and complaints
We welcome comments and suggestions about the services that we provide. We will use this feedback to improve our services. You can contact us with feedback by email at info@hia.ie or by post at The Health Insurance Authority, Beaux Lane House, Mercer Street Lower, D02 DH60.
Complaints process:
If you feel that the customer service from a staff member is not what you would expect, please raise it directly with the staff member concerned.
If you are still unhappy following the staff member’s response, the matter can be referred to the Consumer Information Manager. The staff member will give the customer the name and contact details of the Consumer Information Manager and will let the Consumer Information Manager know, as soon as possible, about the issue that was raised.
The Consumer Information Manager will contact you as soon as possible, and no later than 5 working days from the date the issue has been raised.
Following contact with the Consumer Information Manager, if you are still unhappy, then a formal written complaint should be made to the Consumer Information Manager, The Health Insurance Authority, Beaux Lane House, Mercer Street Lower, Dublin 2, D02 DH60.
We will investigate all complaints and will reply to your complaint within 15 working days or, where this is not possible, give you an interim reply explaining the position and letting you know when a substantive response will be ready.
We will endeavour to learn from mistakes to ensure that errors are not repeated.
Appeals process:
If you are not satisfied with the outcome of the investigation by the Consumer Information Manager, you can appeal the matter to the Chief Executive/Registrar at the same postal address. A reply will be given to you within 15 working days.
If you still want to escalate your complaint even further, the HIA will advise you of the options available for further action.
Customer Action Plan
We are committed to implementing the government’s 12 Guiding Principles of Quality Customer Service for Customers and Clients of the Public Service. Below are the actions which will be carried out during the lifetime of this Charter. The implementation of these actions will be monitored and evaluated as part of our ongoing efforts to improve customer service.