Getting Private Health Insurance Advice

Your Health Insurance Options

There are various types of Private Medical Insurance, each with their own policy options that benefit different people with different needs. The important thing is to find the most suitable policy for you based on your needs and budget.

Inpatient Care

Inpatient or day-patient care – where a hospital bed is required, either for the night or for part of a day, respectively – is a core part of all Health Insurance cover. This will cover you for surgical procedures and all related costs.

Outpatient Cover

As well as core inpatient cover, you can also add outpatient cover to your Medical Insurance policy. Adding outpatient cover allows for diagnostic tests in the lead up to a potential operation to be done privately, rather than waiting for the NHS.

With inpatient-only cover, you’ll have to wait for the NHS to diagnose your condition before using your Private Medical Insurance to resolve the issue. Adding outpatient treatment means you get the extra layer of cover that comes with having your diagnostic tests and potentially any therapies, such as physiotherapy, covered privately.

Health Insurance Underwriting

The type of underwriting you have on your Private Medical Insurance policy is important as it may have an impact on what you can claim for, especially when it comes to pre-existing conditions.

For individuals, there are two main types of medical underwriting.

Moratorium underwriting

Moratorium underwriting excludes most pre-existing conditions you’ve suffered over a set period, usually the last 5 years.

If you have suffered from a medical condition in the past 5 years, you’ll need to satisfy a set period on the policy – typically 2 years – without having any treatment, advice or medication for that condition before the insurer will consider covering it.

Full medical underwriting (FMU)

With full medical underwriting, you disclose your entire medical history upfront and the insurer places outright exclusions on most pre-existing conditions.

They’ll usually rule out covering any pre-existing conditions, although there may be leeway to negotiate cover for more minor illnesses at your insurer’s discretion.

It’s important to be well-informed when choosing your medical underwriting as it could have a massive impact on what you’ll be able to claim for at a later date.

If you have pre-existing medical conditions or are concerned with what will and won’t be covered please don’t hesitate to pop us a call on 02074425880.

Nadeem Farid
Head of Employee Benefits at Drewberry

Other Health Insurance Options

As well as deciding whether you need to add outpatient cover to your Private Medical Insurance, you’ll also have a number of other options to consider. For instance, would you want to add:

• Therapies cover
  Sometimes not covered as a standard part of outpatient treatment, this gives you access to therapies such as physiotherapy, osteopathy and acupuncture
• Routine dental care
  While most policies cover emergency dentistry, say if you lost a tooth, as well as if you require oral surgery, routine dental care (e.g. fillings, checkups etc.) can be added on as an optional extra
• Routine optical
  Again this can be added as an optional extra, giving you cover for glasses and sight tests as well as things covered as standard, such as surgery for cataracts
• Psychiatric cover
  As mental health conditions can be debilitating and very tricky to treat, psychiatric cover is often included as an ‘add-on’ option to medical insurance plans for an additional cost.

Private Medical Insurance: Adviser Top Tips

If you’re looking to get this cover in place, check out our top Health Insurance tips when you’re buying PMI.

Of course none of these tips are a substitute for speaking with a specialist adviser, but they’re designed to give you a rough idea of factors you may want to look out for when purchasing cover.

Check Your Medical Insurance Excess

You can add a Health Insurance excess to most policies. Just like with car insurance, an excess means you’ll have to pay the first portion of the claim out of your own pocket.

The higher the excess, the cheaper your monthly premiums because you’ll have to pay a larger proportion of the cost of the claim upfront. While you can opt for Health Insurance with no excess, this will be at the cost of higher monthly premiums because the insurer will have to cover the entire amount of your claim.

Adding Outpatient Cover

While inpatient and day-patient treatment comes as standard with ‘core’ or ‘basic’ Health Insurance, adding on outpatient cover is an optional extra. If you’re only worried about waiting for operations and the need to have surgery in a timely manner at a date convenient for you, then it may be sufficient to just have inpatient cover.

However, it’s important to realise that with inpatient-only treatment, you’ll have to rely on the NHS for everything that gets you to the point of being operated on. This includes scans, tests and other diagnostics, which can all also have significant waiting lists.

Get Health Insurance Cashback for Using the NHS

Some insurers offer you cashback if you use the NHS for operations and procedures rather than relying on your Private Medical Insurance. This will usually be in the form of a set amount per night you spend in an NHS hospital recuperating from an operation.

So if the NHS waiting list for the procedure isn’t too long and you’re happy to not use your insurance then you may be able to use the NHS cashback option.

Restrict Hospital Lists for Cheaper Health Insurance

Private Health Insurance is designed to give you access to private healthcare in the best hospitals in the country. However, some of the best hospitals and clinics charge more than others due to how prestigious they are and/or their location (e.g. on Harley Street or elsewhere in central London).

Health Insurance providers have “tiers” of hospitals and clinics you can get access to, with the best hospitals being in the top tier and then other, still private, facilities being in lower tiers. Restricting your access to hospitals in the lower tier can end up saving you a lot of money on your premiums.

What to Do When Your Health Insurance Premiums Increase

It’s important that you review your cover regularly, especially if you find that the cost of Health Insurance has increased at renewal. This can happen due to a variety of reasons, but the biggest cause of a hike in Private Health Insurance premiums will be because you’ve made a claim. Another reason the cost of PMI goes up includes medical inflation, such as the cost of new drugs and treatments.

Obviously we can’t avoid getting ill and needing to use our Private Medical Insurance, but a cleaner claims history could help keep a lid on the cost of your Health Insurance the following year.

Get Specialist Health Insurance Advice

Getting Health Insurance advice is so important because setting up the most suitable product can be complicated, particularly if you have existing medical conditions. There are so many nuances to the cover that make it hard to get it right if you go it alone without the help of a specialist.

If it is all getting a little confusing and you want to talk through your options to make sure you find the most suitable cover please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Pop us a call on 02074425880 or email help@drewberry.co.uk.

Why Speak to Us?

When it comes to protecting your health, you deserve first-class service. Here’s why you should talk to us:

• There’s no fee for our service
• We’re an award-winning independent insurance broker, working with the leading UK insurers
• You’ll speak to a dedicated specialist from start to finish
• 4111 and growing independent client reviews rating us at 4.92 / 5
• Claims support when you need it most
• Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Find us on the financial services register.