All Healthcare and wellbeing articles – Page 249
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Article
Buyer's guide to corporate eyecare 2013
Corporate eyecare benefits are popular with employees, enabling them to look after the health of their eyes with regular examinations. For an employer, the perk helps to meet some of its health and safety obligations.Under the 1992 Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations, employers have a legal obligation to ...
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Analysis
Round-up of health and wellbeing research 2-12 to 2013
Employee Benefits has perused the past year’s health and wellbeing research to pull out the top issues that employers and employees are facing around workplace health.Mounting workplace stress, absence management and the affordability of healthcare benefits have been some of the biggest concerns in 2012 and early 2013.The Employee Benefits/Cigna ...
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Analysis
How to integrate fitness into a health strategy
Providing opportunities for physical activity to employees, particularly those who do not meet current criteria for such activity, has many benefits for employees and employers.The advantages of physical activity are well-established: lower obesity rates, increased psychological wellbeing, lower levels of stress and depression, and less risk of cardiovascular disease, type ...
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Article
TR Fleet partners Specsavers for driver risk management
Fleet consultancy TR Fleet has formed a partnership with Specsavers Corporate Eyecare to tackle the issue of poor eyesight and driver safety.Employers that use TR Fleet’s DriveSecure risk-management programme issued with Specsavers vouchers for free eye tests for their staff.The system will identify the drivers who are considered to be ...
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Article
WPA launches medical diagnostic cover
Health plan provider WPA has launched a service to help cover employees’ private consultations and diagnostic procedures.Swift Diagnosis has been designed to enhance WPA’s existing cash plan product, NHS Top-Up, and aims to fill the gap between GP and in-patient care.The scheme, which is avaliable from 1 April 2013, also ...
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Article
Work Foundation calls on government to help staff with cancer
The government should do more to support people with long-term conditions, such as cancer, in returning to work, according to the Work Foundation. Its Returning to work: Cancer survivors and the health and work assessment and advisory service report paper has been written in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support.The organisations ...
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Article
Employer tax relief introduced on health benefits
Budget 2013: The government is to introduce tax relief on up to £500-worth of health-related interventions funded by employers in a move designed to tackle long-term sickness absence and help staff return to work.As announced in January 2013, it is creating the health and work assessment and advisory service, targeted ...
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Article
BBC's sickness absence not due to stress
The BBC has disclosed that only 0.18% of working days were recorded as lost due to stress, anxiety and/or depression between April 2011 and March 2012.Following a Freedom of Information request by LondonlovesBusiness.com, the Daily Mail reported that the broadcaster spent £130,000 on stress counselling for staff in 2012.A spokesperson ...
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Article
NHS trusts spent £1bn on sick pay in three years
NHS trusts in England spent more than £1 billion on sick pay over the past three years, according to research by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP).The research, Fit enough for patients? An audit of workplace health and wellbeing services for NHS staff, looked at documents for 163 trusts, which ...
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Article
E.On launches eyecare platform
Utilities firm E.On has launched an eyecare scheme to simplify how its 11,500 UK employees can take up the benefit.Employees can now order eyecare vouchers directly from provider Edenred via an online portal. This replaces E.On’s previous system which required staff to reclaim relevant eyecare costs through expenses.The portal enables ...
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Article
Iain Laws: Is open-referral private PMI right for employers?
The adoption of open referral by most insurers demonstrates growing employer demand and employee comfort with this approach. We recognise there will always be employers that place more importance on having a choice of consultants and treatment, so we support open referral as a design option rather than compulsion for ...
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Article
Colin Boxall: Is open-referral private PMI right for employers?
Advo Group supports the concept of open referral, but with choice retained. Our job is to listen, understand and advise, including telling employers things they may not want to hear.Our [employer] clients’ view of open referral is in two camps. The ?rst is the positive: seeing sustainability, cost control, no ...
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Article
Charles Alberts: Is open-referral private PMI right for employers?
The important questions are: are premiums becoming more sustainable, and are employees who use the schemes satis?ed?Open referral promises to give employers more cost control, an attractive proposition in an environment where premiums often rise by double digits. This will be dif?cult to monitor because most schemes are subject to ...
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Article
Employers struggle with global health insurance
A quarter (23%) of employer respondents would like to provide international health insurance to employees but can not afford to do so, according to research by Expacare.Its Anatomy of an international business report found that 28% of respondents viewed international health insurace as essential for any employees working abroad, but ...
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Article
Vielife partners PMI intermediaries
Vielife has partnered with a range of large and mid-sized private medical insurance (PMI) intermediaries.The health and wellbeing provider has not yet released the names of the intermediaries yet, but will do so throughout 2013.The partnership will offer the intermediaries access to Vielife Online, a platform that mines health and ...
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Article
Engage Mutual removes cash plan excesses
Engage Mutual has upgraded its employer-paid health cash plan product.The provider has removed the excess payable on four of the six treatment areas: health screening, counselling, complementary therapies, and consultations.It has also introduced the option of a higher premium level with an increased annual fund limit of £1,850.David Castling, commercial ...
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Article
Simplyhealth updates cash plan product
Simplyhealth has updated its voluntary health cash plan product by adding new benefits and increasing the annual limits on a number of existing benefits.The plan, which is available to new clients from 1 February and will be extended to existing employer clients from 1 April 2013, now includes dental accident ...
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Article
Employers in Northern Ireland fail to tackle absence
Less than half (48%) of organisations surveyed in Northern Ireland have actively taken steps to reduce the number or duration of employee absences, according to research by investment advisory firm Kerr Henderson, group risk insurer Ellipse and private medical insurer H3 Insurance.The Employee benefits survey, which was completed by almost ...
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Article
Tax incentives could control sickness absence
The majority (90%) of employer respondents would like to see tax incentives introduced for all forms of healthcare-related employee benefits, according to research by Jelf Employee Benefits.The research aimed to identify the right benefits for such tax incentives by asking employers which healthcare-related benefits would most assist organisations in managing ...
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Article
Cigna launches health plans for oil and gas workers
Cigna Global Health Benefits Europe has launched a range of health plans designed for rig workers in the oil and gas sector.The Cigna Energy Plans offer three levels of cover: core, advanced and ultra. Employers can cover employees worldwide with the choice of either including or excluding the US.Dependents can ...