In this guide, we explain 6 ways you can lower your company’s health insurance premiums. These are:
- Increase your surplus
- Browse additional plugins
- Reduce outpatient coverage
- Review your hospital list
- Add a 6 week NHS wait
- Talk to a health insurance broker
Business health insurance is a valuable benefit for your employees. It gives your team access to private healthcare when they need it, allowing them to effectively bypass NHS waiting lists and receive high quality treatments.
Fortunately, there are several ways companies can lower their premiums to ensure the policy remains affordable.
How to reduce business health insurance premiums
The cost of your business health insurance will depend on a variety of factors, some of which you will have control over and others you won’t. Factors such as the age of your employees and the location of your company, of course, cannot be easily changed.
In this article, we explain six ways you can control your company’s health insurance costs, allowing you to make your policy more affordable.
Increase your surplus
Certain insurers will have a standard excess included in the policy, but you will also find that many providers will give you the option to set an additional optional excess to a value of your choosing.
By increasing your policy excess, your employees will have to pay more for their treatments, which in turn will reduce the insurer’s costs and your premiums. As a consequence, premiums can be significantly reduced, but we always recommend that you exercise caution before doing so.
Remember to keep the excess at an acceptable level
Increasing the excess will of course reduce your premiums, but in doing so you are actually reducing the benefit the employee receives. Ultimately, you want the employee to be able to afford private medical treatment if they need it, so making sure the excess remains affordable is key.
Increasing your policy excess means employees will cover more of the cost of their treatments, reducing the insurer’s upfront bill per treatment or per policy year, depending on how your excess works. As a consequence, premiums can be significantly reduced if a higher excess is chosen.
Review policy addenda
Of course, all of these options can be very useful, but adding them to your policy will increase your premiums. It’s worth checking with your employees what extras they might appreciate as you may find that certain parts of your wrap are not being used and can be removed without issue.
- Alternative therapy coverage – Cover for treatments such as acupuncture and homeopathy
- Dental and optical cover – Coverage for dental accidents and routine expenses
- Expanded crab cover – Contributes more to treatment costs and extends coverage
- Mental health cover – Covers inpatient and outpatient psychiatric treatments and/or therapies
Of course, all of these options can be very useful, but adding them to your policy will increase your premiums. It’s worth checking with your employees which of the add-ons they use and the prices, as you may find that certain parts of your wrap are not being used and can be removed without issue.
Reduce the coverage of group clinics
The company’s health insurance covers three different types of treatment:
- Inpatient – included in all policies, covers the costs of treatments that require an overnight stay
- A day patient – requiring the use of a hospital bed but not an overnight stay – is also usually covered under most policies
- Outpatient clinic – in most cases, it is offered as an additional supplement, covering the costs of treatments that do not require an overnight stay or a hospital bed.
All health insurance policies cover inpatient treatment and most also cover day treatment, however, outpatient treatment is generally an extra charge that you will have to pay more for.
The higher the level of outpatient coverage, the higher your premiums will be. Outpatient insurance is one of the biggest factors affecting the cost of group health insurance policies.
There are several options when it comes to outpatient coverage – you can opt out completely, add limited coverage, or add full coverage. By removing outpatient coverage or adding limits, you can usually lower your annual premiums significantly.
Just be aware that the reduction or removal of outpatient insurance may mean that employees will have to rely on the NHS for some or all of their diagnoses/treatments.
Review your hospital list
With most company medical policies, you will be given a list of private hospitals that your employees can use for their treatments. Many insurers, however, will also give you the option to change this standard list, to include or exclude certain medical facilities.
Expanded hospital lists
The expanded list of hospitals will include more expensive hospitals across the UK, including the best private hospitals in London. As you would expect, adding coverage for these hospitals comes at a significant cost and will affect your premiums accordingly.
6 week NHS waiting option
The NHS 6-week waiting option is another way you can reduce the cost of your company’s health insurance premiums, but it will significantly reduce the level of cover your employees enjoy.
In effect, a clause will be inserted into the policy stating that if the NHS can offer treatment for the condition within 6 weeks, then the employee will be treated through the NHS and not privately. If the waiting time is longer than six weeks, the person will be treated privately.
Review your policy with an independent advisor
The best advice we can give you is to regularly review your policy with an independent adviser. Health insurance can be a bit of a minefield, so by working with a trusted health insurance broker, you’ll always have the right coverage at the best price.
