Vitality business health insurance

Vitality's private health insurance offers small business health insurance for businesses with 1-249 employees and corporate health insurance for those with over 100 employees. If you fall somewhere in the middle, you can choose the right cover based on your employees' and business needs.

Their small business and corporate health insurance policies are based on core cover with optional extras to give you a tailored policy. Their core coverage also includes a full cover promise, meaning costs for eligible treatments are paid in full.

Here's what you'll find with Vitality's small business health insurance plan.

Core cover

In-patient and day-patient treatment

Most health insurance includes in-patient and day-patient treatment. Vitality provides full cover for accommodation, surgery costs, consultant fees and in-patient tests if your employees need hospital treatment.

Out-patient treatment

More insurance providers now offer some out-patient cover as standard. You'll need to pay more for full out-patient coverage, but Aviva's core policy now includes out-patient surgical procedures such as cataract surgery or a tonsillectomy.

They also provide up to six physiotherapy sessions and virtual physiotherapy support services as part of their core plan.

Cancer cover

Cancer cover is an essential part of every health insurance plan. Vitality's advanced cancer cover includes surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and treatments using cutting-edge technology. They also offer screening tests and preventative treatments, which standard plans don't always cover.

Mental health treatment

The Vitality programme includes benefits and discounts from Vitality's partners. However, these partnerships also extend into their core cover. Your staff can get up to eight counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy sessions with Talking Therapies. They can also use the Headspace mindfulness app and Togetherall, an online mental health support service offering assessments, group support and tools.

GP appointments and direct access to treatment

Virtual GP appointments provide 24/7 advice for straightforward health issues. Vitality's service provides online video consultations. If a condition requires a face-to-face consultation, Vitality offers those for £20, with at least two in-person appointments per year.

The Care Hub allows staff to self-refer for up to six physiotherapy sessions or mental health treatment sessions.

Care Hub

The Care Hub is Vitality's online booking service, providing direct access to some treatments. Your employees can also use the service to claim online for private treatment, choose a consultant and track progress.

Additional benefits

Vitality provides various additional services, including:

• Private ambulance transfers
• Home Nursing
• A baby bonus when you give birth
• Parental accommodation if your child must stay in a hospital overnight.
• Surgeries, including oral surgery and weight loss or corrective surgery
• Rehabilitation
• Treatment for pregnancy complications
• Access to care advice and discounted services
• Menopause support via the Peppy app
• Cash benefits if employees receive NHS care.

Optional extras

Vitality's private health insurance lets you tailor your coverage in various ways. Some optional extras provide comprehensive cover, while others offer different levels depending on your requirements.

Out-patient cover

When you choose additional cover for out-patient treatment, your employees will automatically benefit from physiotherapy treatment in addition to the six sessions offered with Vitality's core policy. Treatment is covered in full if employees use a provider from their Priority Physio network.

There's also full coverage for complex scans, including MRI, CT, and PET scans.

You can opt for full out-patient cover or choose a financial limit of between £500 and £1,500, which covers consultant appointments, treatment, diagnostic tests and out-of-network physiotherapy. If you want to ensure employees can access a fast diagnosis, you can upgrade to offer full cover for diagnostic tests outside your chosen out-patient limit.

Mental health cover

Opt for additional mental health support, and your employees can access private healthcare for psychiatric conditions, including up to 28 days of both in-patient and day-patient treatment.

Employee assistance programme

Vitality's Employee Assistance Programme provides access to six face-to-face counselling sessions annually and unlimited mental health support from their 24/7 telephone advice service.

Therapies cover

Therapies cover provides full cover for a broader range of physical therapies than out-patient cover. Therapies include:

• Osteopathy
• Acupuncture
• Homeopathy
• Chiropody or podiatry
• Chiropractic treatment

Therapies cover will also fund two sessions with a dietician if your employee has a GP or consultant referral.

Optical, dental and hearing cover

Many private health insurance providers offer optical and dental cover as an optional extra, but Vitality provides hearing cover as part of the package.

It covers routine check-ups and dental treatments, including fillings and crowns. Your employees can also claim for new glasses or contact lenses if their prescription has changed and dentures and hearing aids if needed.

Travel cover

It's relatively rare for health insurance to offer travel insurance, too. Vitality's worldwide travel insurance covers cancellations, lost luggage and medical expenses overseas. Your employees can also have private vaccinations and preventative medication such as anti-malarial drugs.

The separate emergency overseas cover includes emergency medical treatment, repatriation and evacuation back to the UK.

Personal Health Fund

When you add the personal health fund to your health insurance, your employees can claim for screening tests and prescriptions for chronic illnesses that private health insurance doesn't typically cover.

Corporate health insurance includes core coverage and optional extras designed to meet the needs of larger businesses. It offers a comprehensive package of business insights and wellbeing benefits. Here's what you can expect from Vitality's corporate health insurance.

Core coverage

Vitality's corporate health insurance's core coverage is the same as its small business coverage, with treatment for in-patient treatment, mental wellbeing support and cancer care.

Cover options

We've already mentioned several optional extras, including therapies cover, enhanced mental wellbeing support, worldwide travel insurance and optical, dental and hearing cover. You'll find all of these options as a corporate customer. You can also include services such as a private ambulance and home nursing support and tailor the financial limit to suit your circumstances.

Vitality health insurance also lets corporate clients closely tailor other coverage elements.

Flexible cancer cover

Cancer cover is a valuable part of private medical insurance. With a corporate policy, you can choose your coverage and financial limits. Cancer cover includes diagnosis, treatment and follow-up consultations. In contrast, advanced cover extends the range of treatments and support to include cover for wigs, mastectomy bras and scalp cooling to minimise hair loss.

You can offer a cancer cash benefit to pay cashback when an employee receives treatment or an NHS hospital cash benefit for in-patient or day-patient care that they could have claimed on their insurance.

Childbirth

A baby bonus pays a fixed cash sum when an employee gives birth. You can opt to exclude, include or tailor the financial limits. Pregnancy complications are covered as standard, but you can choose to extend coverage to cover a private caesarean section in some circumstances, including multiple births, previous stillbirths and maternal ill health.

Out-patient cover

Corporate out-patient cover lets you closely tailor your coverage, with separate financial limits on diagnostic tests, scans, out-patient consultations and physiotherapy. You can exclude some tests or treatments altogether or set incremental financial limits in each category.

The Vitality programme works by encouraging healthy living and helping you to build a healthier workforce. It provides rewards for healthy living and can help you achieve discounts on your premium.

It starts with health assessments for each employee, allowing them to set healthy living goals and earn vitality points when they achieve them. These accumulate to enable employees to gain rewards for healthy living from Vitality's partners. Rewards include free coffee, discounted cinema tickets, holidays, gym memberships, and health-tracking technology.

The programme also provides anonymised business insights to help you identify areas for improvement. This information can help you design suitable workplace health initiatives and offer wellbeing support to your team.

Vitality at Work Enterprise is only available to businesses with 1000+ employees. Vitality at Work Enterprise has the same starting point as the Vitality programme: annual employee health checks and advice on developing healthy habits.

A dedicated client manager will provide regular reports on employee engagement, health and work-related health risks. They'll also offer tailored advice to help you develop your workplace wellbeing strategy and initiatives.

Each private healthcare policy comes with exclusions. Some are standard policy terms, while others depend on an employee's medical history.

Depending on your chosen policy options, Vitality covers some treatments that other health insurers don't, such as weight loss surgery or a caesarean section. However, you'll find other standard exclusions such as emergency treatment, cosmetic surgery and developmental or behavioural issues.

Private healthcare offers treatment for acute conditions, so chronic illnesses such as asthma, diabetes or high blood pressure aren't covered. However, your insurance can help employees get an initial diagnosis.

Suppose your employee sought medical treatment or advice for any health issue during the five years before joining the policy. In that case, your insurer won't cover those pre-existing conditions for the first two years but can be added later if they stay symptom-free.

You can tailor the coverage your policy provides to suit your budget, but there are other ways to reduce your premium if necessary.

Excess

You can reduce your premium by setting an excess so employees pay for part of their treatment. Vitality offers an excess starting at £50 and increasing in £50 increments up to £1,000. You can also link each employee's excess to the Vitality programme, giving them a lower excess the more Vitality points they earn.

The excess can be payable per treatment or annually. Setting the excess at a realistic level is essential to avoid putting employees off using their health cover and losing the benefits to your business.

Consultant and hospital list

Choosing 'Consultant Select' provides guided consultant choice, offering a shortlist of consultants when employees claim. The listed consultants are typically lower-cost, so you can save money on your premium.

Alternatively, you can choose between Vitality's Countrywide and London Care lists. London Care is the most expensive, covering hospitals across the UK, including central London. Countrywide includes treatment in private hospitals and private units in NHS hospitals but excludes London.

Underwriting

The underwriting you choose impacts your premium, the claims process and the information your employees must provide when they join. There are sometimes restrictions on underwriting options depending on the size of your business.

Full medical underwriting

Full medical underwriting applies a two-year moratorium period on any pre-existing conditions. Your employees must provide medical information when they join. This option can be cheaper as it offers greater certainty for employees and your insurer.

Moratorium underwriting

Moratorium underwriting works on the same principles as medical underwriting, except insurers don't ask employees for medical information when they join. Instead, they check medical details when an employee claims to see whether the treatment is covered.

Continued personal medical exclusions underwriting

If you've already invested in company medical insurance but want to switch to Vitality, they offer continued personal medical exclusions underwriting. This comes in two forms, and switching can be complex, so it's a good idea to speak to a broker for specialist advice.

Medical history disregarded underwriting

As the name suggests, medical history disregarded underwriting covers pre-existing conditions. Choosing this option won't save you money as it's the most expensive form of underwriting. However, it can benefit your business by ensuring employees can access treatment quickly, whatever their circumstances. It also means employees won't face a lengthier absence due to spending time on an NHS waiting list or disclosing their medical information to you to explain why they can't use their healthcare plan.

Get in touch

Globacare is a broker providing specialist advice to companies seeking the right private medical insurance cover for their team. Contact us today for expert guidance tailored to your business.