NHS waiting times are up by six per cent according to official figures and the experts tell us this will only get worse. Paul Shires looks at the impact on the health insurance sector.
Corporate cash plan sales are increasing year on year, driven by the impact of the economic downturn on employers’ capacity to reward staff and employees’ ability to fund their own rising healthcare costs.
Whereas PMI has long been considered a benefit reserved for more senior members of staff, employers are recognising the value of providing more affordable and broad-based healthcare cover for the wider workforce.
A HAPPY ENDING?
Innovation and education are the two main points of focus that health cash plan providers must bear in mind when working in today’s highly competitive and extremely fluid marketplace.
Employers do not want to see the increase in absenteeism that longer waiting lists will inevitably bring. But equally, they do not want higher costs. With the NHS currently unable to provide all of the services it has offered historically and businesses struggling to afford PMI for their staff, health cash plan providers have an opportunity to bridge the gap and offer an alternative solution that ticks both boxes.
We have already seen providers innovate and react to changes in the NHS, encompassing more wellbeing and mental health-focused benefits such as counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in a bid to assist the government with its ‘No Health Without Mental Health’ strategy. Dental benefits have also evolved to ensure that people can maintain good oral health despite the national shortage of NHS dentists and rising price bands.
And now, in response to the increase in waiting times, surgery is the main focus. What is classed as ‘non-urgent’ or ‘elective’ may be low priority on paper. But if it is you, or your employee, who is unable to work because of the pain, the faster you can access treatment, the better.
The NHS is under pressure and, as health insurance providers, our role is to help ease some of that burden by providing patients with an alternative and more affordable route to treatment and surgery where possible.
Employers want their staff to return fit and healthy to work as quickly as possible, while intermediaries want more tools in their portfolio to meet the ever changing needs of their clients.
The health service that we’ve relied on for decades is dramatically changing and its evolution is only going to continue as the 2014 deadline draws closer. What lies ahead may be difficult to predict. But as health insurance providers, we must keep our fingers on the pulse and make a healthy difference to keep employees in the UK fit to work and able to access the treatment they need, when they need it.
Paul Shires is executive director of sales and marketing at Westfield Health
