23/09/2025

10 mins

Continued personal medical exclusions (CPME) is an underwriting option you have with Private Health Insurance if you’re looking to change provider.

Private Medical Insurance policies renew on an annual basis. This means that once you have a plan in place, each year you get the option to review the policy and your premiums against the entire UK market to ensure you’re getting the right deal for your needs.

Should you find a better deal elsewhere, either in terms of cheaper premiums or better benefits, you’re able to switch insurers.

In this case, you might need CPME underwriting. This is specifically designed for people who are switching Health Insurance providers and want to keep their current underwriting terms.

What Is CPME Health Insurance Underwriting?

With CPME underwriting, your new insurer won’t reassess your medical history from scratch. Instead, you’ll be able to retain the same level of cover you had on your old policy with your previous provider.

This type of underwriting is particularly important for those who’ve had medical conditions treated under their old plan, as the new insurer won’t add any new exclusions based on those conditions.

However, your new insurer will carry across any existing exclusions you had on your old policy to your new plan.

ADVISER TIP 🤓
If you’re thinking of switch Health Insurance policies, we don’t recommend going it alone. If you have pre-existing conditions, it’s especially important you get specialist advice to ensure you are making the right decision when it comes to changing insurer.

Give us a call on 02074425880 or email help@drewberry.co.uk to find out your options.

How Does Continued Personal Medical Exclusions Underwriting Work?

To switch Health Insurance on a CPME basis, you’ll need:

The most recent copy of your current policy certificate
Information about any claims that you made on your current policy
Basic information about your medical history.

While your new insurer won’t use your medical history to underwrite your new policy, you have to provide this information so your new insurer can decide whether it can offer a new policy on the same terms as your old one.

Once your new insurer is satisfied with everything, they’ll take your policy certificate to copy over any exclusions from the old policy to your new one.

However, although your coverage remains the same, your new policy’s terms and conditions may differ from your old policy.

You should examine the small print carefully to ensure that your new provider doesn’t have any blanket exclusions that it will add to your policy (which you may not have had previously).

Remember, it’s not always possible to switch providers.

For example, if you’re in the middle of a claim or have recently made a costly claim for a serious health condition, it’s unlikely a new insurer will take you on, at least initially.

You may need to serve a set period with your current insurer without having any further treatment to be eligible to switch.

Alex Weir
Health & Wellbeing Specialist at Drewberry

What is Continued Moratorium Underwriting?

Insurers offer most Health Insurance policies on a moratorium basis. This usually involves a rolling moratorium, whereby your insurer initially excludes any medical condition you’ve had in the five years leading up to your policy’s start date.

However, a rolling moratorium means your insurer may consider covering that condition if you spend at least two years on the policy without any advice, medication or treatment for it.

So what happens if you switch insurers in the middle of this period? In this case, you’ll likely need to consider continued moratorium (CMORI) underwriting.

Example of CMORI

Imagine you’re part way through a moratorium for a particular medical condition. For example, say it’s been a year on your current policy without any advice, medication or treatment for a condition. You have another year on the policy before the insurer will consider covering that condition.

When you get your Health Insurance renewal quote, however, you decide to go out to the market and see if you can get a better deal. You then find you can get cheaper premiums elsewhere.

Providing you switch on a CMORI basis, you can typically continue your two year moratorium on a new policy.

This means if you’ve served a year on your old policy, then with CMORI underwriting you could potentially serve out the rest of the moratorium (another year) on a new policy before the new insurer will reconsider covering your pre-existing condition.

Need Private Medical Insurance Advice?

Switching Health Insurance providers isn’t simple. This is especially the case if you suffer from pre-existing conditions or have previously made a claim.

At Drewberry, we encourage a regular market review to ensure you’re always getting a suitable policy for a suitable price. We live and breathe insurance, and can do the heavy lifting for you when it comes to finding a new deal. For fee-free advice, call 02074425880, or compare quotes online in 60 seconds.

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