Director Health Insurance

What is Health Insurance for Company Directors?

Private Medical Insurance provides you with private healthcare treatment bypassing potentially long waiting lists for treatment on the NHS so you can receive medical attention when you need it most.

There are a great many benefits to receiving your medical treatment privately, including:

• Unlimited visiting hours
• Private facilities with features such as ensuite hospital rooms
• Advanced control over when and where you can receive your treatments
• Access to the latest drugs and cutting-edge treatments that may not yet be available on the NHS.

Many of our clients who are company directors want to be back on their feet and back to work as soon as possible, which is why they opt for Private Health Insurance to ensure fast, effective care.

Not only this, but it’s a cost you can run through your business if you wish.

What Does Director Health Insurance Cover?

There are three different types of treatments that can be covered by the policy: inpatient, day-patient and outpatient treatments.

• Inpatient treatments
  Treatments that require the use of a hospital bed overnight, e.g. surgical procedures.
• Day-patient treatments
  May require the use of a hospital bed but no overnight stay is necessary, e.g. minor operations.
• Outpatient treatments
  Do not require the use of a hospital bed and no overnight stay is necessary, e.g. scans, tests, and consultations.

As standard, all Medical Insurance policies will cover inpatient and usually day-patient treatment. This means you’re covered for most surgical procedures you require. However, if you want to add outpatient cover to your policy, this will be an optional extra.

Although reducing your outpatient cover can reduce the cost it may delay your care. This is because, without outpatient cover, you’d need to use the NHS for all the diagnostic aspects of your care (e.g. blood tests, scans and x-rays etc.) before getting your referral for private inpatient treatment if appropriate.

Chronic vs Acute Conditions

Health Insurance policies are designed to cover acute conditions. If the condition can be treated and reversed, as long as it is not excluded from your policy your insurer will typically cover it.

This is opposed to chronic conditions, which are permanent, lifelong conditions that can only be managed, such as diabetes and asthma. For treatment of chronic conditions, you’d need to supplement your Private Health Insurance with NHS care.

Do Directors Need Private Health Insurance?

As a company director, we recognise that you’re a busy person. What’s more, your business not doubt relies on you being able to fire on all cylinders, but a health problem can throw a serious spanner in the works.

If you couldn’t work due to an acute illness or injury that needed medical attention but NHS waiting lists meant you couldn’t be treated for weeks, how would you and your business cope?

It’s here Private Health Insurance for company directors can step in to get you the treatment you need faster, at a time and place that suits you.

Directors can even expand their Health Insurance to family members, allowing for your partner and children to also be covered and eligible for treatment under the same terms as you.

This could lift a considerable burden off your shoulders if someone in your family was in need of medical treatment.

• At the end of March 2018, 2,755 patients waiting to start treatment after a referral had been waiting for more than 52 weeks.
• At the end of March 2018, around 3.84 million patients were waiting to start treatment.
• In 2017/18, the median wait for admitted treatments was 10 weeks.
• Roughly 13% of patients had to wait more than 18 weeks to receive treatment as of March 2018.

Can My Limited Company Pay for Private Health Insurance?

While your company can indeed pay for your Private Medical Insurance premiums, it’s best to discuss with your accountant whether this would be the most cost-effective route for your circumstances.

Personal Medical Insurance vs Business Health Insurance

Personal Medical Insurance

Paid for by you as an individual for yourself and your family. This would be paid out of post-tax income, straight from your bank account.

If you are purchasing a policy for yourself, you have the option with some insurers to use your business to pay the premiums. You can then usually offset your premiums against your corporation tax bill.

When the business pays for premiums, Health Insurance is considered a P11D benefit and you will be taxed accordingly based on the annual cost of the cover.

Business Health Insurance

Business Health Insurance, meanwhile, is designed to cover employees of a company. The cost of the policy is paid for by the business and the employee benefit that is provided to your staff is considered a P11D benefit, meaning the workers will have to pay additional tax on the cost of the benefit.

Company Health Insurance is usually only available for companies with more than five employees.

How Much Does Director Health Insurance Cost?

When looking to protect your health there are a number of personal factors which will impact on the overall cost of your policy.

Age

As we get older our health declines and as a consequence insurers tend to increase the cost of Health Insurance.

Geographic Location

Your location / postcode will affect which private hospitals and professionals are available to provide your treatment when you make a claim. If you live in an area where private hospitals are less expensive, you can expect to pay lower premiums compared to someone who lives where treatment is more expensive.

Medical History

When you take out your policy, your medical history will have an impact on your premiums.

If you have a history of regular hospital visits or general poor health, your insurer may see you as a high risk. Also, if you have suffered from serious conditions in the past, this might suggest that you are likely to claim for expensive treatments going forward. As a consequence, they will increase your premiums.

Similarly, while you have your policy, your premiums may increase if you make a costly claim or claim for frequent treatments.

This is something you cannot control, but choosing to take treatment from the NHS if the condition is non-urgent may save your no-claims bonus.

Smoker Status

Smoking is highly detrimental to your health and people that smoke are considerably more likely to experience health problems.

Consequently, smokers can expect to pay a lot more for their Health Insurance policy than a healthy non-smoker. If you smoke, kicking the habit and going smoke-free for a minimum of a year can see the cost of your Private Medical Insurance policy drastically reduced.

Policy Factors

In addition to personal factors such as age there are a number of policy factors which you can choose that will also impact on the cost of your policy.

Outpatient Cover

Outpatient cover is a highly beneficial cover to include in your Director Private Health Insurance policy.

If you are interested in outpatient cover but worry about the cost, some providers offer a limited outpatient cover option that will cover your treatments up to a certain budget. This will allow you to claim for important outpatient treatments but, as it limits the insurer’s overall liability for your outpatient care, will keep premiums down.

Excess

By adding an excess to your Health Insurance policy, you agree to contribute some of your own money to the cost of your treatment. You will be given the responsibility of choosing the amount that you want to contribute either per claim or per policy year.

Adding this to your policy can reduce the cost and the higher your excess, the greater your premiums are reduced. However, it is important that you don’t get too  carried away with your policy’s excess – choose an excess that is affordable if you need to claim rather than opting for the maximum just to reduce premiums.

6 Week NHS Wait

With this option added to your policy, you are volunteering to only claim for treatment on your Health Insurance when the waiting time to receive your treatment through the NHS is longer than 6 weeks.

This option can have a drastic effect on the cost of your policy, reducing your premiums and giving you a better chance of protecting any no-claims bonus you might have earned.

Hospital List

The hospital list you choose when taking out your policy will decide where you can receive your treatments. Depending on your provider, you may have the option to either reduce your hospital list to cheaper facilities or expand your list to include some of the top private hospitals in London.

The more comprehensive your list and the better the facilities included on it, the more you are likely to pay in premiums.

Compare Top 5 UK Health Insurance Providers

Aviva

Aviva is the largest insurer in the UK. Aviva’s PMI offering is their Healthier Solutions product, which you can tailor to your own budget.

• Underwriting
  Full Medical Underwriting / Moratorium / Continued Personal Medical Exclusions
• Excess
  £100 / £200 / £500 / £1,000 / £3,000 / £5,000 per year
• Core Cover
  Inpatient and day-patient / cancer cover
• Outpatient Cover
  £0 / Reduced (limited to £500 or £1,000) / Full outpatient cover

AXA PPP Healthcare

Based in Tunbridge Wells, AXA PPP Healthcare has helped people to access healthcare services since 1940.

• Underwriting
  Full Medical Underwriting / Moratorium
• Excess
  £100 / £250 / £500 / £1,000* / £2,500* / £5,000*
• Core Cover
  Inpatient and day-patient / radio/chemotherapy** / Optional mental health cover
• Outpatient Cover
  Standard or Full

Bupa

Established over 60 years ago, Bupa is a UK household name. Bupa Health Insurance has two tiers of over: Comprehensive (full inpatient and outpatient care) and Treatment & Care (inpatient-only). Both options include mental health cover as standard.

• Underwriting
  Full Medical Underwriting / Moratorium
• Excess
  £0-£500
• Core Cover
  Inpatient and day-patient / radio/chemotherapy / Mental health cover
• Outpatient Cover
  Paid in full or with optional limits of £500 / £750 / £1,000

The Exeter

Founded in 1927, Exeter Family Friendly is a mutual Friendly Society with over 60,000 members. The Exeter’s Health Insurance policy is known as The Exeter Health+.

• Underwriting
  Full Medical Underwriting / Fixed moratorium / Rolling moratorium / Continued personal medical exclusions
• Excess
  £0 / £100 / £250 / £500 / £1,000 / £3,000 / £5,000
• Core Cover
  Inpatient and day-patient / cancer cover
• Outpatient Cover
  Paid in full or with optional limits of £500 / £1,000

Vitality

Vitality (formerly PruHealth) launched in October 2004 as a joint venture between Prudential and South African health insurance provider Discovery. Vitality has an innovative approach to health insurance in their Vitality plan, rewarding you with points and reduced premiums for healthy living.

• Underwriting
  Full Medical Underwriting / Moratorium / Continued personal medical exclusions
• Excess
  £0 / £100 / £250 / £500 / £1,000 once a year or once per claim
• Core Cover
  Inpatient and day-patient / cancer cover
• Outpatient Cover
  Paid in full or with optional limits of £500 / £750 / £1,000 / £1,250 / £1,500

*Not available with standard outpatient option
**For those who have had cancer before taking out the plan or who removed the cover for cheaper PMI, AXA's NHS Cancer Support will see the patient treated for cancer on the NHS but with any drugs not routinely available on the NHS paid for by AXA

Get Expert Health Insurance Advice

Not only is Health Insurance a fairly complex protection due to all the ins and outs of the cover, but as a company director you also have the choice of whether to pay for the cover personally or through the business.

It can be tricky to know which one will work out best for you, so why not get some advice on the subject?

Why Speak to Us…

We started Drewberry because we were tired of being treated like a number and not getting the service we all deserve when it comes to things as important as protecting our health and our finances. Below are just a few reasons why it makes sense to talk to us.

• There is no fee for our service
• We are independent and impartial
  Drewberry isn’t tied to any insurance company, so we can provide completely impartial advice to make sure you get the most appropriate policy based solely on your needs.
• We’ve got bargaining power on our side
  This allows us to negotiate better premiums for you than you going direct yourself.
• You’ll speak to a dedicated expert from start to finish
  You will speak to a named expert with a direct telephone and email. No more automated machines and no more being sent from pillar to post – you’ll have someone to speak to who knows you.
• Benefit from our 5-star service
  We pride ourselves on providing a 5-star service, as can be seen from our 2033 and growing independent client reviews rating us at 4.92 / 5.
• Gain the protection of regulated advice
  You are protected. Where we provide a regulated advice service we are responsible for the policy we set-up for you. Doing it yourself or going direct to an insurer won’t provide this protection, so you won’t benefit from these securities.
• Claims support when you need it the most
  You have support should you need to make a claim. The most important thing when it comes to insurance is that claims are paid and quickly. We are here to support you during the claims process and make sure it’s as smooth and stress free as possible.

If it is all a little confusing and you would like to learn more about your Health Insurance options as a director, feel free to pop us a call on 02084327333.

We can advise you on the right cover for you, compare quotes from all the leading insurers and help get your policy set up correctly.

Nadeem Farid
Head of Employee Benefits at Drewberry