Is There a Maximum Age Limit When Taking Out Private Health Insurance?
I have been on a group scheme most of my working life and am now getting close to retirement. I was wondering...
Vitality Health Insurance
VitalityHealth Cover
Founded
2007
Company Type
Private Limited Company
Company Overview
Vitality is owned by the leading global insurer Discovery Holdings, based in South Africa. In 2007, Discover entered the UK market with a joint venture with PruHealth and PruProtect. This lead to Discover buying 100% of the shares in 2014 and becoming VitalityHealth and VitalityLife.
VitalityHealth are currently the fourth largest provider of Private Medical Insurance in the UK. They were the first insurance company to award people fort healthy living and help you take a more active role in managing your health. This is due to their belief in the idea of ‘shared value’ and that improving your health will be good for you, good for them and good for society.
Vitality provide a range of rewards to encourage people to improve and maintain their long-term health, including increased no-claims discounts, regular gifts from partnering companies, and long-term rewards.
Vitality Health Insurance Overview
Vitality offers ultimate flexibility with their Health Insurance policies, providing a comprehensive range of options that allow you to tailor your cover to match your needs.
- Extended cancer cover and full inpatient and day-patient cover is given as standard, with the option available to limit these covers if you don’t want comprehensive cover.
- Cover for nursing at home, private ambulance and parental accommodation in certain circumstances.
- Vitality offer a range of rewards for getting active, including fitness tracking gadgets, premium discounts, and deals for products like international flights, cinema tickets and hotel stays.
- Vitality include a Full Cover Promise as standard. There is no limit to how much they will cover when it comes to consultancy fees. They promise to cover the full amount, with no set time or money limits.
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Vitality Health Insurance Policy Conditions
Key Policy Facts
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Underwriting |
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Excess | £0 / £100 / £250 / £500 / £1,000 once a year or once per claim |
No Claims Discount | Start on 65% no-claims discount if you don’t already have health insurance. No-claims discount is increased every year you’re claim-free to a limit of 80%. |
Minimum Entry Age | 18 years old |
Maximum Entry Age | 79 years old |
Core Cover
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Inpatient & Day Patient Cover | Fully covers hospital fees, diagnostic tests related to your admission and consultants’ fees, including surgeons’ fees and anaesthetists’ fees. |
Extended Cancer Cover | Full cover for a range of therapies, drugs and surgeries, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy stem cell therapy and cancer surgery. Receive up to £1,000 per day for palliative home nursing care (limited to 14 days). Receive £300 per claim for wigs and restyling and £200 per claim for mastectomy bras and prostheses. |
Oral Surgery Cover |
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Optional Additional Cover
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Full Outpatient Cover | Fully covers all consultations, consultants’ fees, diagnostic tests and physiotherapy. |
Limited Outpatient Cover | To keep a lid on costs, you can limit outpatient cover to £500 / £750 / £1,000 / £1,250 / £1,500 worth of treatment. MRI, CT and PET scans are fully covered as well as physiotherapy arranged through Vitality’s Priority Physiotherapy Network. |
Psychiatric Cover | Consultations with psychiatrists / psychologists |
Therapy Cover | Covers in full or to a limit of £350 per year
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Worldwide Travel Cover |
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Limited Cancer Cover | 12 month limit on biological therapies 3 month limit on hormone or bisphosphonate therapy |
Dental Cover | Major Dental Treatment OR Major and Routine Dental Treatment |
Additional Benefits
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NHS Cash Benefit | Receive a cash benefit when you use the NHS for treatment. | Inpatient Treatment: £250 per night (£2,000 limit) |
Home Nursing Cover | If home nursing is recommended instead of more inpatient treatment. | Paid for in full |
Private Ambulance | It’s medically necessary for you to take a private ambulance to transfer between hospitals. | Paid for in full |
Rehabilitation Cover | Rehabilitation treatment after a stroke or serious brain injury. | Covered for up to 21 days following eligible inpatient treatment |
Pregnancy Complications | You require inpatient/day-patient care for health complications relating to pregnancy. | Full cover for specific procedures |
Parent Accommodation | You require overnight hospital accommodation to accompany children under 14 receiving treatment | Paid for in full |
Childbirth Cash Benefit | You adopt a child or you/your partner gives birth | £100 per child |
Weight Loss Surgery | If you have a BMI over 35+ with associated health problems or 40+ without associated health problems and require a gastric band or gastric bypass | After a contribution of 25% of the cost of consultations and package treatment, Vitality cover the remaining costs. |
Drewberry Reviews Health Insurance from Vitality
Vitality’s Wellness Optimiser programme allows you to lower the cost of your policy and claim rewards for healthy living.
Key Comparison Points
- Vitality’s Health Insurance policies are quite unique in their cover because their core policies include comprehensive cancer cover that you can choose to limit rather than starting with limited cover. For many of their add-on cover options they also offer full and limited versions.
- Vitality Health Insurance policies have a range of options for excess, which makes it easier to save money on your policy while still covering necessary medical costs.
- Vitality are willing to cover alter alternative therapies, such as acupuncture, chiropractic therapy, and osteopathy if you add therapy cover to your policy. Provided you get a referral from your GP, you can get these therapies covered completely by Vitality or limited to £350.
- Vitality are the only UK Health Insurance provider to guarantee full coverage for consultation fees. Most insurers will only cover consultation fees up to a certain amount, but Vitality promise to cover the whole cost provided your consultant is recognised by Vitality.
Additional Benefits and Services
- Access Vitality’s Private GP Helpline. Book video consultations with Vitality GP and get clinical advice, private prescriptions and referrals within 48 hours. Receive up to 4 consultations per year for each plan and member.
- By signing up to the Vitality Wellness Optimiser programme, you can collect Vitality points by exercising, which you can use to lower your premiums or collect all sorts of rewards and discounts. By opting into to this programme, you can either get a discount on a fitness tracking gadget or get one for free, which you can use to track your fitness and collect Vitality points.
- Vitality have their own Priority Physiotherapy Network that presents a range of great benefits if you need physiotherapy. Firstly, Vitality will pay for your therapy in full, which will not impact any limits on your outpatient cover. You are also able to refer yourself rather than go through the hassle of getting a referral from your GP and your physiotherapist will manage your claim, so you won’t have to keep getting authorisation from Vitality to get more sessions.
Financial Strength
As a partnership between Prudential (founded over 150 years ago) and Discovery, PruProtect was founded with the joint financial knowledge of two leading insurers. In 2014 Discovery bought Prudential’s remaining share of the business and rebranded the company Vitality.
Vitality is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme – if they cannot meet their financial obligations, you may be entitled to 90% of the value of your loss.
Vitality Health Insurance: Questions and Answers
At Drewberry, we have made it our mission to know all of the ins and outs of these policies, putting us in the best position to help you find the right policy.
Below, we have put together some of the top Health Insurance FAQs and given our answers. If you need our help finding the best policy or would just like to know more, contact us today on 02074425880.
Q. How are my consultants chosen if I need a referral?
A. Vitality have partnered with Alliance Surgical, an independent healthcare group, who will choose the best consultant for you if you need treatment. They are able to find high quality consultants and experts that specialise in your condition.
If you are not happy with the consultant that has been selected for you, you can change to a different one and you can get a referral from either your NHS GP or from the Vitality GP app.
Q. What sorts of treatments and conditions are not covered by Vitality Health Insurance?
A. As is typical with most Health Insurance policies, chronic conditions won’t be covered by Vitality. However, if you develop a chronic condition during the term of your policy, Vitality will cover the costs of your consultations and tests leading up to your diagnosis, as is the case with most insurers.
Vitality also have similar standard exclusions to most other insurers, which include organ transplants; cosmetic treatment; experimental treatments; and symptoms of normal (i.e. uncomplicated) pregnancy/childbirth.
Need Expert Health Insurance Advice?
As you can see, there are a lot of points to consider when comparing insurers. With so many factors in play, it can be time-consuming to pull up key information across every single insurer in the market, so why not ask an adviser for help?
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 2766 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 getting a little confusing and you want to talk you 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.
Nadeem Farid
Head of Employee Benefits at Drewberry
Great service assisting me obtain the right product. Would happily recommend Drewberry following their professional and efficient way of working.
Jonathan Chadwick
08/06/2020
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Frequently Asked Private Medical Insurance Questions
- 1You Come FirstWe are a client focused business who always aim to put you first.
- 2We are ExpertsTo provide you with the best advice, we need to know our stuff!
- 3We are HumanWe are real people with feelings who are here to help you.
- 4We are ProfessionalProviding a 5-star service requires a professional approach to everything we do.
- 5We are here to EducateWe don't believe in sales, we are here to educate so you can make informed decisions.
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