Corporate Health Insurance > Save On Group Medical Cover

What is Corporate Health Insurance?

Corporate health insurance gives employees and sometimes their families, access to private healthcare in the event they should ever need it. Corporate health insurance is considered one of the most highly valued paid for benefits among employees and equally provides significant benefits to the employer.
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By having access to private healthcare, employees can avoid potential delays on NHS waiting lists, be treated faster and be back to full health quicker.

What does Corporate health insurance typically cover?

Corporate health insurance will always cover the cost of inpatient treatments where an overnight stay is required to treat acute conditions. Many corporate health insurance policies will also cover treatments where a day bed is required, but access to more comprehensive outpatient services is usually an extra cost.

Inpatient and day-patient on most policies

All corporate health insurance policies will include inpatient treatment, with many also covering day-patient treatment too. While having this cover is an excellent starting point, it’s important to point out that all of the tests, consultations and diagnosis leading up to treatment will need to take place through the NHS.

Outpatient examination, tests and treatment

With most policies, you will have the choice to include part or full out-patient cover. As you increase the level of cover provided, the cost will go up, but by giving your employees at least some outpatient cover you will lessen the risk of their treatment being delayed. Many employers opt to include outpatient treatments up to an annual cash value to negate the risk, without seeing premiums go up too much.

Exclusions from Corporate Health Insurance

Each provider will exclude slightly different things from the policy, but broadly speaking all of them will exclude the following:

Employees’ pre-existing conditionsRoutine pregnancyCosmetic plastic surgeryEmergency servicesGP Service

Benefits of Corporate Health Insurance

The benefits of Corporate Health Insurance are numerous, to both employer and employee.

Employer Benefits of Corporate Health Insurance

Reduce staff absenteeismGet employees back to work soonerReduce stress in the workplaceAttract new employeesRetain existing talent

Employee Benefits of Corporate Health Insurance

Avoid potential delays on NHS waiting listsHave flexibility over location and time of treatmentAccess medicines and treatments which may not be available on the NHSReceive enhanced psychiatric careMore choice over the treating consultant

Cost of Corporate Health Insurance

The cost of Corporate Health Insurance will be dictated by a number of factors and of course by the insurer’s current rates.

Factors affecting Corporate Health Insurance cost

The level of cover you chooseNumber of people on the policyThe average age of the groupType of underwriting usedLocation of employeesHospital list selectedThe volume of pre-existing conditionsYour industry and employees occupations

Policy Options for Corporate Health Insurance

In configuring your Corporate Health Insurance you have a number of options available to you which will both affect the amount of cover your employees have and the cost of the policy.

Level of outpatient cover

You can choose to provide no outpatient cover; cover up to a cash value or full cover. It is recommended to provide some level of outpatient cover, just to avoid your employee’s treatment being held up by delays in being diagnosed.

Mental Health Cover

Mental health cover is seen by many businesses as an essential addition to their group health insurance policy. It should be noted though that as the cost of treating mental health issues are amongst the highest of any illness, adding this cover will increase the premium significantly.

Adding family members

You may wish to allow employees to add their family members to the corporate policy to afford them the same cover. It is, of course, a significant additional cost but can really help your team should their close ones become unwell.

6 week NHS wait

If you are looking to reduce the cost of your premiums, you can look at add the “6 weeks NHS wait” clause into the policy. This will mean that the employee can only use the private health insurance policy if the waiting time for their treatment on the NHS exceeds 6 weeks.

Hospital list

Insurers will typically divide their hospital list into two tiers, standard and upper. You’ll often find that many London hospitals are only included with the upper tier and indeed they sometimes have a tier of their own. Depending on the location of your employees, where the hospitals are situated will be an important deciding factor.

Dental and optical cover

Routine dental and optical care won’t be included in your policy as standard. Yes, more serious illnesses relating to the eyes and mouth will be included; checkups and such won’t be. You can usually opt to add this to the policy though for a relatively small additional contribution.

Health cash plan

Many Employers will set up a health cash plan alongside their main policy to lessen the impact of any excesses on the policy. In the event that a staff member becomes unwell, they pay the excess but then reclaim it via the health cash plan. Surprisingly, this is often cheaper than simply having a policy with no excess.

Types of underwriting for Corporate Health Insurance

There are several key types of underwriting used for Corporate Health Insurance policies; each of them assesses the risk in a different way and so, each has its own pros and cons.

Moratorium Underwriting

The most commonly used type of underwriting for Corporate Health Insurance policies in the UK is Moratorium. With Moratorium Underwriting, you and your employees will not need to complete any medical history questionnaires, as the insurer will effectively provide cover on the basis of any pre-existing conditions occurring in the past five years being automatically excluded.

Full Medical Underwriting

With Full Medical Underwriting, the insurer will look at each of your employees’ entire medical history in order to provide a quote. This type of underwriting will give you and your employees a detailed summary of what is and isn’t included; however, it is time-consuming and for anything more than a dozen employees, it can be difficult to complete.

Medical History Disregarded

As the name suggests, Medical History Disregarded ignores any pre-existing conditions and provides complete cover anyway. This is the most comprehensive form of underwriting and as you might expect is also the most expensive and typically only available to groups of 20 or more members.

Continuing Personal Medical Exclusions (CPME)

Continuing Personal Medical Exclusions allows employees who already have Private Medical Insurance to join your scheme, or for you to switch to a different provider, ensuring that current coverage of pre-existing conditions is continued in the future.

The application process for Corporate Health Insurance

In order to apply for Corporate Health Insurance, we will need a few details from you, such as the dates of birth of your employees, their genders and their work postcodes. In addition, we will need to know what type of underwriting you would like to use and whether you would like any additional options on the policy. While we could do this without speaking to you, we do find that having an initial call speeds up the process considerably. Once we have this information we will approach the UK’s leading providers and then come back to you with a free report of our findings.

Compare Corporate Health Insurance with myTribe

Compare the leading providers of Corporate Health Insurance with us and receive free, impartial advice from a UK based account manager. The pricing we provide for you will be the best currently available and we’ll give you tailored recommendations based on your requirements. Whether it is a new policy or a medical insurance renewal, we’ll help you find the best policy.

Benefits of our service:

Dedicated UK based account managerWe compare insurers on your behalfFree advice and comparison serviceWe’re impartial and independentOur advisors are all FCA Approved

Corporate Health Insurance FAQs

Is Corporate Health Insurance a P11D benefit?

Yes, it is. When Health Insurance is paid for by an employer it is a P11D Benefit in Kind and as such is taxable.

How much do employers pay for health insurance?

How much employers pay very much depends on the number of people being covered and the level of protection which is put in place.

What is group private medical insurance?

Group Private Medical Insurance is another name for Corporate Health Insurance or Business Health Insurance. All three names are interchangeable.

Can a small business get Corporate Health Insurance?

Yes, assuming you have a minimum of two employees you will be able to get Corporate Health Insurance. Regardless of the size of your business, it is always best to speak to us first as we can help you find the best policy.