Frank Levene, chief executive and founder of health insurance company Passport2Health UK, tells Nicola Culley about his innovative PMI product offering medical treatment abroad .
But Levene is confident it will have a positive effect on the UK healthcare system. He reasoned if people sought treatment outside of the UK some of the pressure would be taken off the bulging NHS waiting lists.
“The NHS was funded very aggressively during the years Labour was in government. But there has been insufficient infrastructure. With all the big cuts in the public sector we will see a struggle for it to meet the needs of the UK market place,” Levene said.
“But how the NHS should run is beyond my sense of purpose. This product idea with the overseas option in PMI should be a natural step forward.”
Levene has been in the healthcare sector for 25 years. He said having gathered much experience in this period he had developed a “fully broad and wide” perspective. And was confident this venture would be a much-needed filling for the UK PMI gap.
This is a thought echoed by others in the industry. At this year’s Amii summit, a panel session invited much debate on how to resuscitate the UK PMI market. And delegate questions included the suggestion that overseas treatment could be one way forward.
Levene also said that tax breaks for those with PMI would be a sensible move.
He said: “Why do they not bring in tax breaks for those taking out PMI? It is another way to get people to get this much-needed cover. There are all sorts of models of healthcare around the world, but fundamentally whatever model it is it needs to be funded correctly.”
‘Talking to the big players’
Levene explained that his focus, however, was not on the future for the NHS, but solely on his Passport2Health venture. And in his own words – “breaking out of the UK healthcare gap restrictions”.
He said: “We have 20 brokers signed up with us now. We closed our first sale on 12 July. And the pipeline has grown threefold. We now have 1,000 lives on our books.
“We are talking to the big players in the adviser space but we also have been driving a big focus on the smaller and medium-size firms.”
Passport2Health’s hospital network with be the core of its focus as it develops. Expansion will be on-going in this way, with Europe and the East Mediterranean the current areas of interest.
It will also be looking into its package offerings more closely. Including a post-treatment spa option could be a potential development to come out of this.
“It could be a recuperation option. It will be a place where someone can rest after treatment and fully recover,” Levene outlined.
As for any competition, Levene could not say if competitors had been looking at similar models. For the time being, he is confident about Passport2Health’s head start and the fact the proposition had been “quite complicated” to put together and would mean it would take time for others to build.
But he said he would not be surprised if others looked at Passport2Health, realised the opportunities overseas and wanted to replicate.
CV: Frank LeveneLevene is the chief executive and founder of health insurance company Passport2Health UK for medical treatment abroad. He was deputy chief executive at Osnova Insurance from November 2009 to March 2011. From August 2005 to July 2007, Levene was managing director of conglomerate group Basic Element Company in Russia. He has held positions at Allianz Insurance Group, Procter & Gamble Leven has held positions overseas throughout his career. |
