Bupa Cash Plan Fundamentals
Bupa’s new Cash Plan Fundamentals plan, launched in late September, has three levels of cover, and gives employers the option to cover different employees at different cover levels. Employees can claim back up to a total of £2,295 a year towards the cost of their everyday healthcare expenses. The maximum annual benefits are up to:
Benefit Level 1 2 3
Dental: £50 £100 £200
Dental injury £200 £300 £400
Optical £50 £100 £200
Therapies (physiotherapy, osteopathy and chiropractic) £150 £250 £350
Consultations, scans, diagnostics £200 £300 £400
Chiropody £50 £100 £200
Medical appliances £100 £200 £300
Health screening £100 £150 £200
Prescription charges £25 £35 £45
All three cover levels include access to a 24/7 helpline offering advice on medical, tax and welfare issues. There is no initial underwriting or upper age limit, and employees can start claiming on their cash plan immediately. Bupa says that its straightforward claims process means that claims are often completed within two working days.
Plans can be extended to provide cover for an employee’s entire family, and this starts from an additional £1 per employee per week.
Plus points: Very low cost (usually from the monthly equivalent of just £1 a week) health cash plans are proving popular and are now offered by a number of providers; They are used both to help employers meet their ‘duty of care’ responsibilities and to provide at least a basic level of health insurance for every or just for key groups of employees; Bupa’s entry to this growing sector is therefore welcome.
The insured benefits included in the plan are useful and likely to be used regularly by most employees; Adding a 24/7 helpline and a range of member discount offers means that for many employees the plan could pay for itself many times over.
The key to such plans is using the very low ticket price as a base to add on other benefits, often to firms that have not previously had any form of medical insurance cover.
Not so plus points: One notable absence from the benefits list is a per night or day hospital cash benefit; That said, many other health cash plans also no longer include this benefit, not least because it is arguably less important, given today’s generally lower average lengths of stay in hospitals.
Although the plan is relatively simple and was announced at the end of September, by 22 November we could find no details of the new plan’s benefits on Bupa’s websites (aside from the initial press release).
Website: http://www.bupa.com.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 6. Overall: 7. Silver.