Aviva Healthcare Solutions & Healthier Solutions (Protection Review rating: Gold, Adviser score 9.0)
Aviva has updated its Solutions and Healthier Solutions products. Solutions is private medical insurance (PMI) for SMEs, while Healthier Solutions is designed for individual clients.
From 1 March 2021 a number of enhancements, plus a number of other improvements, will be applied to these products, along with other changes, including the removal of emergency overseas benefit.
Full details are set out in two Product Changes guides but include:
Expert Select is a new open referral hospital option included in Solutions and Healthier Solutions. It provides a simpler, supported claims journey, and the choice of a number of Aviva quality-approved facilities and specialists in the customer’s area. With Expert Select, customers can book their first specialist appointment there and then. Aviva says this improved clinical quality also results in greater cost efficiency and affordability for clients.
The Mental Health Pathway is now included in Solutions core cover. This enables customers to help keep their employees well. They can quickly access a wide range of specialists, including talking therapy and counselling, without the need to see a GP first. As well as helping to reduce absenteeism, this can also help speed up the route to recovery and a successful return to work.
Enhanced Cancer Benefits are now included in Solutions and Healthier Solutions core cover. This includes the removal of the previous ten year limit on follow-up consultations and cover is extended to include preventative bisphosphonates, which can help prevent certain cancers from reoccurring. In some circumstances, customers have the option to choose where they are treated - in hospital or at home if it’s more comfortable for them.
An enhanced mental health pathway on Solutions. This uses partner providers to offer quick access to treatment, a simple claims process and cover based on clinical need.
New wellbeing benefits. On Solutions, Aviva Wellbeing is a desktop and mobile app, while mental health support services can help combat mental health, stress and anxiety. Healthier Solutions now includes MyHealthCounts, GetActive and Aviva Digital GP services.
Other enhancements include extending Solutions down to companies with just one employee (and going up to 249 employees); outpatient surgical procedures are now outside outpatient limits; excesses no longer impact outpatient limits or dental and optical benefit limits; the moratorium wording has been clarified, and some other T&C changes have been made too.
Emergency overseas benefit has been removed as Aviva says this was ‘rarely used’.
Comment: Expert Select is a new open referral system, although customers can still choose to use a more formal hospital list if preferred. Otherwise, with the exception of the emergency overseas benefit being scrapped, both plans now include a range of useful new services, with the focus very much on wellbeing as well as still offering more traditional PMI values.
Overall, these are useful updates to two well established PMI plans.
The SME plan now goes down to just one employee (and up to 249 employees) so opening up a group solution to the 76% of the UK’s 5.9 million private sector businesses that do not employ anyone apart from the owner(s).
Plus points: A range of new services on both the SME and individual PMI plans; Focus on mental health and wellbeing; SME plan now goes down to just one employee; New open referral option as an alternative to hospital lists.
Not so plus points: The old emergency overseas benefit has been removed; Not everyone is a fan of open referral.
Website: http://www.aviva.co.uk.
Rating (max 10): Overall: 8. Gold
Tags: PMI; Aviva
I Mark: No
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