Groupama Health Insurance is a part of Groupama Insurances, one of the UK’s leading general insurers. The UK group offers motor, home and medical insurance and protects a growing number of smaller UK businesses.
The company employs approximately 800 staff in six centres and is an accredited ‘Investor in People’. Groupama Insurances is a previous ‘Underwriter of the Year’ award winner at the British Insurance Awards and has also been highly commended in the same category. At the Insurance Day Awards, Groupama Insurances has twice been voted ‘Underwriting Team of the Year’ and recently received the honour of ‘Company of the Year’. The UK Group has also been awarded ‘Insurer of the Year’ at the Bodyshop Magazine Awards.
Groupama Insurances is part of European financial services giant Groupama, an international insurance business that generates annual revenues of £7billion.
For many people, the biggest advantage of paying for Private Medical Insurance is being able to avoid long queues on the NHS – but is that the only reason for investing your hard-earned cash in private medical insurance?The fact is that there are a number of good reasons that more and more companies are offering PMI as one of their most popular job benefits. Here are some of the advantages of paying for private health insurance – plus some drawbacks to watch for and suggestions to make it more affordable.
Avoid the queue – and so much more.
The NHS is notorious for long waiting periods before you can get recommended medical treatment. Private health insurance can allow you to schedule your treatments sooner, and at more convenient times. But there’s more to PMI than just queue-jumping. In addition, when you opt for PMI, you may find that more conditions and treatments will be covered than under the NHS, the treatment facilities are more comfortable (and more private), and the meals in hospital are better. Depending on the company and the cover that you choose, you may even have coverage for alternative health treatments like chiropractors and acupuncture.
And the bad news is…
Private medical insurance is notorious for being expensive. Again, the expense depends upon the cover and the insurance provider that you choose. There are many ways to cut costs, though. From shopping around to taking a higher excess, to choosing to share costs or agreeing to conditions that save the insurance company money, you can take some control over how much you actually pay for private medical insurance. Some policies, for instance, allow you to choose between being covered under NHS or using your PMI for certain conditions.
Taking control of your healthcare costs
One popular option is to agree that you’ll take NHS treatment as long as the queue for treatment is less than a specified number of weeks. If the estimated wait time exceeds the specified waiting period, you can schedule treatment through your PMI instead. Another option is to limit your health care choices to a specified list of providers and/or hospitals. You can even cut your premium by agreeing to be treated in a private NHS room rather than in a private hospital. Your treatment costs to the insurance company are less, so you pay lower premiums.
Cutting costs through group PMI
The most well-known type of group cover is PMI through your employer. Many more employers are offering to pay part of your premium for private health insurance as part of an enticing job benefit package. Getting PMI through your job is one of the easiest ways to slash your premiums. Even when your employer doesn’t cover part of the cost, you can often get a substantial saving on PMI just because you’re a member of a group with bargaining power.
The same principle applies to fraternal organizations and other organizations to which you may belong. Check with any clubs or organizations to find out if they’ve worked out any special premium reduction offers with private health insurers.
Read the small print
No matter what you choose, do be certain to read the fine print of your insurance contract. It will spell out specifically what is covered and what is not covered. Health insurers are not benevolent organizations – they’re in the business to make money, so you can be sure that they’ve stacked the odds in their favor. Common exclusions are for pre-existing conditions or those that are diagnosed within a short waiting period after your initial acceptance.
Companyy Private Health insurance in the UK accounts for a large proportion of people that are insured on private health insurance. The employer may offer this as a benefit to the employee of the company and also may offer that the spouse and dependants are added to the policy as well. If you are a company or business you will be able to get more beneficial premiums on a company scheme than if you had either an individual or family policy. For further information or quotation contact your healthcare advisor who will be able to advise you of your options in this regard.
Demonstrating Norwich Union Healthcare’s expertise in the healthcare and protection markets, Health Protection Solutions is a selection of flexible insurance and protection products and occupational health services enabling employers to protect themselves and their employees.
Designed to offer a modular series of solutions to help employers manage the health of their company, Health Protection Solutions can help minimise associated risk through providing protection to employers, employees and their families.
This range of products and services helps to manage both short and long term absence and the legal and financial risks associated with Employee Health and Safety.
Consisting of three modules each with a number of products and services, Health Protection Solutions is made up of Private Medical Insurance, Group Risk and Occupational Health.
As part of Employer Solutions, Health Protection sits alongside the Absence and Wellness Solutions propositions to provide the complete range of corporate health and well-being products.
Company health insurance from AXA PPP healthcare does not get much better than their Flexicare health insurance. It allows you to pick and choose the level of cover that you want and works on a no claims discount basis. The level of cover ranges from core cover to ful outpatients and choices of excess and upgrade cancer insurance and dental and optical benefits. There is no real limit to the amount of employees that can be placed on thepolicy and underwritiong terms are either moratorium or full medical underwriting.
Bupa select company/business health insurance plan is designed to offer a modular approach to company health insurance. It allows the company to choose the level of cover required to suit your needs and your budget. It starts with core cover and then offers a variation on out-patient benefit and other moules like psyciatric and optical and dental.
There is a choice of excess and hospital listing. This combined with telephone claims authorisation makes this a desirable and compact product that is competitively priced in the company health insurance market.
If no two companies are alike - why should their health insurance cover be the same? In response to changing customer needs, we have introduced a flexible approach to company health cover. Bupa Select lets you choose a health cover solution that fits your business, rather than you simply opting for a ‘one size fits all’ approach with lots of features you pay for but may never use.
Bupa Select, the flexible choice
Bupa Select is made up of an extensive core of health cover benefits and a suite of options that lets you adjust your cover to match your requirements. This means that we can design a solution to suit your needs and help to provide the most suitable medical cover for employees at every level of your organisation.
Bupa Select, tailored for you
From the outset, Bupa will work closely with you to design a tailored solution for your business. Once we have a detailed understanding of your business we can provide a health cover package that meets your requirements. Call 0800 042 0555 for further information or visit www.privatehealthservice.co.uk
