MyRecoveryCheque SSPProtect
MyRecoveryCheque is a range of products from MediCheque, which is run by ex PatientChoice founder Dominic Higham and its medical director Dr Tony Williams.
This starter option costs just £5 a month per employee (through brokers – it’s actually more expensive if bought direct) and picks up on the fact that, since 6 April, employers can no longer reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) paid to workers off work ill for up to 28 weeks. Prior to 6 April, a percentage threshold scheme (PTS) compensated employers if they had higher than average sickness absence. So, an employer could recover some of the SSP paid to their employees if the total SSP paid in a tax month was greater than a set percentage of their gross Class 1 NICs (National Insurance contributions) liability for that month. The measure was scrapped as it failed to encourage employers to best manage their sickness absence.
SSPProtect allows employers to insure their SSP costs and pays them a fixed sum based on the normal maximum recovery time following an operation or medical procedure or for occupational injuries. The plan groups such events into four, paying out £100, £300, £1,000 or £2,500. If higher benefits are desired, MyRecoveryCheque offers four cover level options. The four SSPProtect classifications/payouts are:
A. Recovery and return to light manual work in a few days. Pays £100.
B. Recovery and return to light manual work in up to two or three weeks. Pays £300.
C. Recovery and return to light manual work in up to one to two months. Pays £1,000.
D. Prolonged recovery. Pays £2,500.
Normal maximum recovery time to get back to work following a heart attack or chemotherapy is nine weeks, which could result in an employer paying £787.95 in SSP. The plan effectively rounds that up to £1,000 and pays that.
Where an operation has a maximum recovery time of a week, the employer could pay SSP of £87.55, and the plan would pay £100.
The effect of this is that employers gain if the return to work is quicker than might be expected (or, conversely, the employer may lose if the return to work is slower), so there is some incentive to achieving early return to work.
Pre-existing conditions in the previous 12 months plus cancer recurrence and some other exclusions are not covered by the plan. Any employee can be covered if they are resident in the UK for a minimum of 180 days a year. Up to three claims in any 12 month period can be made.
Comment: Too few employers have group IP, CI or PMI for all their employees, so this plan could help intermediaries by offering a low cost plan providing benefits around their SSP costs. Some situations (mental health and musculoskeletal conditions for example) would not result in a plan payout but there could well be SSP costs so the plan is not all enveloping, but then it only costs a fiver a month anyway.
Employers who buy the concept will do so either to get some health benefits to cover all staff or to supplement other insurance cover. In any event intermediaries now have a good opportunity to talk to firms about the changes to SSP, how that might affect the firm and what options are available to insure against that.
Plus points: Links to changes in SSP rules; Relatively simple concept; Low cost; Can be bought standalone or to supplement other insurances; Larger benefits available from other MyRecoveryCheque products; Encourages early return to work..
Not so plus points: Only pays on specific absence causes; Does not cover the main causes of short-term sickness absence (including mental health and musculoskeletal); Relatively low benefits; Does not negate the need for other insurances.
Website: http://www.medicheque.co.uk