Gallagher Heath uses a health cash plan to cover some of the excess from its private medical insurance (PMI) scheme.
Only 340 senior employees at the insurance broker and risk management firm are members of its employer-paid PMI scheme, provided by WPA via a healthcare trust. But since October 2008, all 1,200 staff have received employer-paid health cash plan cover, currently provided by BHSF.
The cash plan helps members of the PMI scheme plug a gap caused by an unusually high excess of £750. They can claim back 30% to 50% of this through diagnostic consultations or complementary therapies.
Although such a high excess can greatly reduce the P11D costs of PMI scheme membership for staff, if their employer did not also provide a health cash plan, people may be dissuaded from taking up the PMI. The employer could, therefore, be left with largely older lives in the PMI scheme, which would skew claims costs.
Deborah Wills, reward director at parent company AJ Gallagher, says: “The cash plan was introduced for various reasons, such as to address the costs of eye testing and to avoid paying for a standalone employee assistance programme (EAP) But the ability to cover some of the excess has been a valuable side benefit for PMI scheme members.”
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