Making Health Insurance Easier For You & Your Business

20th, Aug 2021

At Cransford, we want to understand your business so that we can help achieve as many of your healthcare & wellbeing goals as possible. We do this primarily by advising on the most suitable private health insurance and cash plan schemes, and then also by coordinating and signposting the provision of additional services through partners and recommended providers.

How can we help support the health of your team?

Can we help provide access to private care?

Perhaps these are questions that you have been asking yourself recently as you have watched the impact of the pandemic on our public health services; and on your own staff team as they struggle to get appointments and resolve their own health and wellbeing issues.

Building a team in which people feel valued helps to make that team and its individual members more resilient and able to handle the challenges and fluctuations of your sector or market. There is no easy quick way to building a resilient and flexible team but helping that team to get healthy and stay healthy provides part of the basis on which to build. Private healthcare insurance and cover products can provide a cost-effective means to allow your team to access private healthcare services and facilities.

Our provision of insurance products is supported and enhanced by working in exclusive partnership with the Kingsbridge Healthcare Group, Northern Ireland’s largest private healthcare provider. Our goal in this partnership is to bring access and preferential rates to our clients of services within the Group. These may include health screens; eye tests; hearing care; or training in health and safety.

Here, we want to provide some guidance on which insurance and cover plans are available, and how these can support your staff.

Private Medical Insurance (PMI)

These insurance policies provide the most comprehensive level of cover in the private healthcare market. The most recognisable providers are the likes of Bupa, AXA, Aviva & Vitality. These policies provide cover for outpatient treatment and diagnostics, as well as inpatient treatment and care. In general, the policies cover cancer care, though the extent of this cover can be reduced in some cases if desired. Other optional features include cover for additional and alternative therapies, and mental health treatment including outpatient and inpatient care.

The major caveat to these policies is that any pre-existing conditions a member has, before being insured, will generally not be covered. The policies also generally exclude chronic conditions, which once diagnosed, will be treated by the NHS.

Healthcare Scheme - Benenden

This type of scheme allows members to sign up for a standardised membership fee. Benenden is the leading provider of this type of scheme in Northern Ireland. From the start of becoming a member Benenden provide access to GP and mental health telephone services. After six months of membership, members can avail of £1,800 of cover for diagnostics and cover for over 250 common surgical procedures, as well as access to physiotherapy. Cover is provided on a discretionary basis depending on resource availability, but pre-existing conditions are not generally excluded.

Cash Plans

These plans provide defined yearly benefits in exchange for a regular subscription fee. The benefits generally work on a cash-back basis, where members are reimbursed for medical expenses up to a defined yearly limit. The benefits can include dental & optical treatment; health assessments; diagnostics; digital GP and Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). The subscription fees for these plans are relatively low cost but can provide excellent benefits and support to team members if signposted adequately.

One or more of these products could be used to form part of your healthcare and wellbeing strategy. The providers are keen to support businesses of all sizes in developing these strategies, to help improve the health of team members and mitigate the develop of more serious health problems, as well as treat the serious issues as these arise.

As an independent broker, Cransford provides expert advice on the various products available, and which would suit your organisation. Why not contact us today for a free consultation and market review? Even if you already have an insurance policy in place, we can advise on how it can be amended, improved, or achieved for a lower rate with an alternative provider.