Running a business and looking after your staffs well-being should go hand in hand and by offering various benefits as part of their overall package you can make them feel more valued and potentially be more productive. Additional benefits can attract and retain the best staff possible, resulting in keeping your business running at optimum levels. Our latest article looks at the benefits of business health insurance and why you as an employer should consider this option.
Also known as business medical insurance, company health cover is an employee benefit of private healthcare paid for by your business. You might also hear it referred to as group insurance or corporate health cover.
For staff, having a company health insurance scheme allows them to access private healthcare that they might not otherwise be able to afford. This can potentially help them to avoid long NHS waiting times and receive treatment sooner. Your business can benefit from a healthier and happier workforce and reduced sickness rates by enabling staff to get faster access to health support.
Having a healthy workplace goes further than reducing absences. When your workforce is mentally and physically healthy, you will see a rise in morale and productivity. Offering benefits to employees is a great way to make them feel appreciated, and with mental health issues on the rise, the benefits of business health insurance can offer specialised, prompt help. The option to adding employees to policies can also include immediate family cover. If your employees’ families can access quality care, you will reduce the number of days your team needs to take off to care for loved ones.
Like all insurance, the cover you get from private medical insurance depends on the policy you buy and who you buy it from. The more basic policies usually pick up the costs of most in-patient treatments – such as tests and surgery – and day-care surgery. Some policies extend to out-patient treatments – such as specialists and consultants – and might pay you a small fixed amount for each night you spend in an NHS hospital.
Most policies include cover for:
The best health insurance plans will make it really clear what is and isn’t included in your cover. Most policies don’t cover:
Where an employee is included in a Group Private Medical Insurance scheme, this is treated as benefit in kind by HMRC, so employees pay income tax on the premiums.
The cost of the premiums to the business is an allowable business expense, so your company will receive tax relief on premiums.
Private medical insurance providers will usually offer access to discounted gym membership as well as discounted coffee, clothing, travel and much more. Many of the discounts are centred around living a healthy lifestyle, benefiting all staffs well-being and health.
For further information on the benefits of business health insurance and any other HR issues, please contact us here.
