Peter Promnitz has taken up his role at a critical time
Australian Unity chairman Peter Promnitz says it's passion you should look for in your career - take on a role you feel you can make a difference in.
And in his latest gig - and throughout his career - he says he has done just that. 
He has taken the reins at the mutual as it rapidly turns its traditional business model on its head, driven by a lift in aged care revenue, which is fast closing in on Australian Unity's dominant private health insurance arm.
Promnitz, who became chairman of the mutual in   March, says he has come into the role at a -critical time given Australia's -ageing demographics and changing health needs.
"What you look for in life is something you can be passionate about," he says. "I was lucky. I was in the superannuation industry in the 30-year growth period of superannuation in Australia where people had the ability to take control of their own retirement.
"I now get to move across into aged and disability care at a time when that is going to be the focus in Australia for the next 15 or 20 years.
"I have been in interesting areas throughout my career that all kind of link together and lead to people having a better life." Healthcare is a subject many people are passionate about and it is proving a key policy platform for both major parties in this year's election campaign.
Promnitz says the industry wants all governments to make sensible long-term policy decisions and then stick to them.
"Our issue about policy is there is good policy and sometimes not so good policy. But at the end of the day, we just need to know what we are facing for the next five to 10 years. Stability and transparency of policy is more important.
"We are quite dependent on the government of the day -making logical, sensible policy -decisions for the Australian -community." Promnitz's career was spent in the financial services industry, superannuation, pensions and the investment industry.
He says what he found interesting when joining Australian Unity's board more than three years' ago was its focus in areas -related to his career history - such as independent and assisted living, home care and retirement villages.
"I found it an interesting adjunct to all the stuff I'd been spending my career on, it's all -related, but different enough to be interesting." He says Australian Unity's business has changed considerably from being dominated by private health insurance to an almost even split with aged care.
"Australian Unity's purchase of NSW Home Care (in   February) has fast-tracked the independent assisted-living business getting close to being the same size as the private health insurance business," he says. "The company's diversification strategy has taken a big step forward." Having taken over NSW Home Care, the company is now closely linked to the federal government's national disability insurance scheme, which will become a strong source of funding for the group.
Promnitz says the creation of NDIS has changed the funding model for age and disability care, which has changed the emphasis on that part of Australian Unity's business.
"NSW Home Care overlaps significantly with disability care, and of the 50,000 clients we took on with NSW Home Care, around 10,000 will ultimately be transferred to NDIS funding," he says.
"I'm very positive about NDIS. It's important for Australian Unity â€¦ it's an important step -forward." Promnitz says diversification has always been core to Australian Unity's strategy, which is reviewed every   April when the board holds a three-day offsite meeting.
"I just did my fourth one and each year we re-examine the 10-year plan and focus it down to a three-year plan," he says. "We reconsider our growth strategy and our diversification strategy, and assess how each business is either growing or not growing." Promnitz highlights that while the performance of a business is driven by how well the company runs it, it is also dependent on -outside forces.
He says government changes to private health insurance rebates had some impact on growth prospects for that business, while the creation of the NDIS had positively changed the funding model for age and disability care.
Private health insurance has been in the spotlight as all sides of the debate look to point the finger at who is forcing premiums to rise, while Health Minister Sussan Ley has the role as umpire.
Ley has agreed to look at the contentious Prostheses List to -appease private health insurers angry at the great divide in costs between public and private -hospitals.
Promnitz argues "clearly" there is some profit-taking at some point in the prostheses -process."Whether it is international providers of the prostheses, or it's the local middle men who pass along costs, or hospitals buying those prostheses, somewhere along the way someone is making more money out of one than the other, and you have to question why." The private health insurance sector has also had to adjust to a new regulator over the past year, with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority taking on oversight of the industry.
Promnitz tips the new regulator could accelerate consolidation in the sector. "The history of APRA will say that they will start to ask the sustainability and scale question of those smaller insurers.
"If you look back to the history of APRA, it had 7000 super funds it administered at one point, and now it's down to 250. It positively went out there and encouraged organisations to think about scale and efficiency and sustainability." He says Australian Unity always has a constant stream of -organisations it is talking to."That's how we've grown in the past and how we will grow in the future."