Clifford Lortan:
A vision for trust in medical insurance
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Audio Title: Clifford Lortan: A vision for trust in medical insurance
Description: No one trusts insurance companies. Clifford Lortan, the founder of Founder of 5Strat Consulting, is on a mission to change that
No one trusts insurance companies.
Clifford Lortan, the founder of 5Strat Consulting, is on a mission to change that.
“One of the big gaps that I saw in terms of both insurance and in terms of medicine is there’s a big trust deficit,” said Clifford, reflecting on his transition from the pharmaceutical sector to building a new kind of medical insurance model.
“Medical insurance, which is slightly different to medical aid, is becoming a bit of a swear word because of the way it’s being sold at the moment.”
He detailed how customers are frequently misled, being promised more than the product can deliver. One example he gave was the capped hospital benefit in many policies:
“There’s a cap in terms of what you can access in hospital, and that cap is 350,000 and once you hit that cap, the cover is no longer relevant.”
This fundamental misalignment between what’s sold and what’s experienced lies at the heart of this credibility crisis.
Clifford Lortan
Founder | Driving Commercial Clarity & Scalable Growth in Healthcare & Insurtech | Build. Scale. Leave a Legacy
Trust as a Strategy
Clifford and his team are not approaching this issue with vague ideals.
“We’re trying to put systems in place, both from a technology perspective but also from an HR perspective, where we plug that trust deficit.”
This includes a unique approach to measuring success.
While most players in the industry chase sign-ups, Cliford’s focus is on retention.
“Our measurement, for example, will be retention. How many of these members that we're onboarding do we retain? And retention is based on education and making sure that a member is onboarded correctly.”
– Clifford Lortan
“At the moment, you’ve got people going to call centres… The sales staff is being measured purely in terms of how many people they onboard. So there’s huge pressure on these salespeople to onboard as many people, and often they will tell you things that are untrue.”
Instead, his organisation will incentivise truth and long-term relationships.
“That salesperson will be measured on how many people they’re actually retaining… and that will mean that the onboarding process has got to be done ethically.”
The Human Touch in a Tech-Driven World
While technology will play a key role in onboarding and education, Clifford insists the human element is non-negotiable – after all, no one wants to talk with AI when dealing with insurance.
“We aim to have a very people-centric call centre… where people can engage 24 hours with somebody… that is well equipped to be able to give them good advice.”
Whether it’s helping someone choose the right hospital or explaining casualty limits, his vision is for a system where customers feel supported, informed, and respected.
“We’re building on two fronts… but we’re not losing sight of the human-centric part of it.”
Trust and Commercial Sense Go Hand in Hand
While trust might sound like an abstract value, Clifford makes the case that it’s also smart business.
“Purely from a commercial point of view, it makes sense to retain customers,” he said. “For every customer you lose… you’re losing reputation number one, but you’ve got to onboard another customer.”
He contrasted his model with the current churn-and-burn approach used by many providers. “Call centre cost is relatively low. So they would rather churn and onboard and churn and onboard. The model doesn’t make any sense to me.”
But trust-focused retention comes with its own costs – ones that Clifford is willing to make.
“To be able to retain customers, you need to invest quite heavily… instead of just an onboarding call centre, you need to have a retention call centre and that’s expensive.”
Less Talk, More Testing: The Role of Pilots
Clifford also emphasised the importance of piloting new concepts, especially in a startup environment:
“What we find particularly in start-ups is there’s often too much talk and not enough pilots.”
– Clifford Lortan
In his view, ideas must be tested in small, controlled environments before being rolled out.
“We can take five pharmacies where we can quickly go and pilot something. If we fail in those five pharmacies… it doesn’t cause major damage, but we also set expectations… and we’re learning.”
Measuring Trust, Delivering Legacy
Ultimately, Clifford’s focus on trust is not just about commercial gain; it’s about legacy and impact.
“If we see trust as a gap, if we can close that gap as a business, it sets us apart… even 5 or 10% better in terms of filling that trust gap… there’s huge upside to that.”
“Everything that I’m doing when I engage with people, the first thing that I say is I’m building a trusted brand. And this is how practically and operationally we’re going to build around that trust.”
– Clifford Lortan
“By focusing our primary focus on filling that trust gap, I believe we can build a commercially very significant business.”
Teagan specialises in Copywriting, Public Relations, Social Media Marketing and Blogging. Teagan uncovers the deeper “why” behind every venture. She believes that every person and project has a unique story, and nothing excites her more than transforming these narratives into compelling content that demands to be shared with the world.
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