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Legal & General Group Critical Illness Add-ons (Adviser score 7.0)

July 2020 Legal & General: CI

Gold

Legal & General (L&G) has added a number of new support services to its group critical illness (CI) cover products.

The enhancements are available at no extra cost and are provided through L&G’s partnership with healthcare services provider MEDIGO.

The new add-ons are:

A second medical opinion. Insured employees and their immediate family members can get their diagnosis and/or treatment for almost any condition reviewed by leading medical experts. A specialist doctor (or a team of specialist doctors) from a leading medical institution with expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of the specific disease will either confirm the diagnosis and/or treatment plan or recommend a different diagnosis and/or alternative treatment plan(s) based on the latest advances in modern medicine and on global standards of treatment for the condition.

Nurse Support Service. Claimants get access to telephone and messaging support from a qualified, experienced nurse and obtain ongoing, personalised care throughout their treatment. The Nurse Support Service becomes available after a Group Critical Illness claim is approved
Medical concierge. This is a facility for employees who want private self-pay healthcare. They can get help from a professional MEDIGO case manager who will assist and coordinate their treatment plan. This is available both in the UK and abroad. The service covers most conditions but exclusions do apply for certain high risk and cosmetic procedures. The MEDIGO network includes over 1,100 hospitals in 35 countries across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

The core CI product covers up to 41 conditions (15 standard and 26 can be added at additional cost) and includes children’s cover. Pre-existing and related conditions are usually excluded. Maximum benefit is £500,000 and the 24/7 employee assistance programme is available to all employees, not just those insured under the group CI plan. Spouses and partners can be added at additional cost.

Comment: These three extras cover three useful benefits and cost nothing to include so there is really very little downside. A second medical opinion is surprisingly valuable to have, as is a nurse support service. Medical concierge is an extra we expect to become a lot more popular, not least because even people with private medical insurance may want or need to have self-pay treatment at some time too. There are some exclusions and limits but that should not affect most people.

As we hopefully emerge from the Covid-19 crisis, it’s good to see insurers ramping up such extras and helping to make their products and services even more valuable and relevant to even more people.

Plus points: Three useful additional benefits; At no extra cost; Concierge service is likely to grow in popularity as self-pay is not an easy market to navigate for many.

Not so plus points: Some additional complexity; Not every employee will take up any of the benefits; Some benefit limits and exclusions.

Website: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/adviser/workplace-benefits/group-protection/products/products-list/group-critical-illness-cover/.

Rating (max 10): Overall: 8. Gold

Tags: CI: L&G

Gold
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