Investing in private medical insurance for your employees keeps your people healthy and your business thriving.
Corporate health insurance, sometimes known as group health insurance, gives your employees access to private healthcare treatment options in the UK.
When employers offer private healthcare to their people, everybody wins. The company and its employees all reap the rewards.
This is how a typical group scheme is set up and runs:
The range of treatments covered by group private medical insurance depends on the insurance company you use and how much you pay in premiums.
The most significant difference between entry-level and more wide-ranging policies is whether they include outpatient cover and diagnostic tests.
The vast majority of business medical insurance plans will offer you and your company employees services, including:
When you choose a higher level of health cover for your employees, you unlock a wide range of other services, including:
Most group health insurance providers offer flexible plans with optional extras so that you can give your valued employees even more comprehensive cover. These other benefits may include:
All group health insurance policies will exclude certain conditions from cover. Standard exclusions include:
Insurance can be complicated at times, so our priority is to keep things simple and give you the facts you need to make a decision. We don’t rush or push clients in a given direction - it’s vital you come away feeling confident in your choice.
It makes sense for companies to look after their employees' mental health. Not everyone can deal with the pressures of life and work, but when workers struggle mentally, they can't perform at their best. As a result, many businesses formulate strategies to create a workplace centred around mental wellbeing.
Group health insurance can be a central part of your strategy. Depending on your provider and policy, you can add a wide range of mental health services, including:
The UK's four major insurance companies offer business health insurance so you can deliver more benefits for your employees. Let's look at each of them in turn:
Aviva's corporate healthcare product is aimed at large businesses with 250 or more employees. It aims to be as flexible as possible for companies, allowing you to pick and choose what is covered to suit your business needs. Aviva also offers other benefits to help your employees stay healthy.
Depending on your level of cover, you can get:
Bupa's corporate health insurance is available for companies with 250+ employees. There are two private medical insurance plans: Bupa Balance and Bupa Select. Balance aims to provide access to core private healthcare services, while Select offers a variety of cover options.
With Bupa Select, your employees can get the following:
When you get business health insurance from AXA Health, you don't just get private healthcare; you get a healthcare solution built around your business.
AXA Health's product, called Advance, offers benefits including:
Employees also have access to a Wellbeing Hub to help them make healthier lifestyle choices.
Vitality offers group health insurance to companies with 100 or more employees. But it's more than an insurance policy; it's an integrated wellness programme that aligns with your business strategy.
Benefits available include:
As with many Vitality products, you and your employees can earn rewards when you make healthy lifestyle choices. Rewards include discounts on Apple watches and Peloton bikes, cinema tickets and gym memberships.
The cost of group health insurance depends on several factors, including:
The most significant difference between health insurance for large businesses and small business health insurance concerns medical underwriting.
Larger companies can have 'Medical History Disregarded' underwriting, which covers employees' pre-existing conditions. It's the most comprehensive type of health insurance underwriting. However, it is not available to small businesses.
The underwriting option you choose for your business health insurance can significantly affect your premiums. There are four main methods of medical underwriting in health insurance. They are:
Policies that cover employees' pre-existing conditions will be more expensive, as they represent a greater risk and are more likely to make claims.
