Joint effort aims to reduce premium inflation in corporate health

Standard Life Healthcare and health management company vielife have joined forces to offer a service that may avoid massive premium inflation in the corporate healthcare market.

The package, which the companies will sell through brokers, comprises a standard corporate healthcare package alongside a health monitoring service. The vielife health management service regularly monitors staff health, identifying problem areas so that appropriate preventative measures can be applied. It also provides monthly reports for human resources managers.

The launch of this corporate private medical insurance (PMI) package coincides with Buck & Willis' Healthcare report which said corporate PMI premiums would soar by 70% in the next five years. It is understood that this would undermine the ability of brokers to sell such packages.

Standard Life Healthcare chief executive Mike Hall claimed that the new product could help avoid massive premium increases because of its preventative aspect.

Hall said: "If the industry on the employers and insurers side does nothing, the Buck and Willis report may turn out to be accurate," he said. "Our new package has had an excellent reception in changing the idea of health as an investment. The issue now is around proving it."

Hall said one benefit of the package was good personal advice for staff and employers getting a high level report to show problem areas.

Hall, who is chairman of the ABI's PMI committee, said the ABI was keen to promote PMI as an investment in a company's business.

Vielife managing director Clive Pinder said that there had been a "very good response" from intermediaries.

A leading medical intermediary said that the new package was "excellent". He said: "We are all in favour of insurers offering employee benefits."

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