Medex Protect Sickpay Protect
Medex Protect’s new plan simply reimburses employers the £88.45 a week they pay as Statutory Sick Pay for 27 of the 28 weeks that the benefit is paid. The benefits starts to be paid from day seven of the period off sick.
In addition, the plan pays for up to two private GP consultations per employee per annum. These are delivered face-to-face by the Dr.Now secure app. Also included are telephone consultations with specialist occupational health nurses (with detailed reports and advice provided to the employer), an employee assistance programme, face-to-face consultations with occupational health physicians (again with reports provided to the employer), a pre-commencement screen for every new employee and an occupational health helpline.
Additional risk management tools cover night workers, expectant mothers, musculoskeletal conditions (a risk assessment) and screen equipment (equipment assessment).
The policy is underwritten by Compass Underwriting at Lloyd’s.
The plan costs £10 per employee per month
Comment: Changes to SSP came into effect from April 2014. Since then, employers can no longer recover SSP costs. However, firms do get a £2,000 a year allowance to offset against their NIC bill. In effect therefore, a firm with say ten employees could pay £120 a year for each for this plan, cover its SSP liability and still get change from its £2,000 Employment Allowance.
As well as covering that potential liability, this plan includes a good range of practical absence management solutions.
It’s a very innovate solution that could appeal to a lot of smaller employers. Little information was available online when we checked on 30 October, but this is likely to have been remedied by the time you read this.
Plus points: Designed for SMEs to cover their potential SSP liabilities plus provide sickness absence management solutions too; Low cost – may be covered by the annual £2,000 Employment Allowance for many smaller employers: Simple to set up.
Not so plus points: The SSP benefit is reasonably low, but does cover the potential liability; Not an alternative to full group income protection cover.
Website: http://www.medexprotect.co.uk.
Rating (max 10): Innovation: 9. Overall: 9. Platinum
Tags: IP; Medex Protect