Medical Care Direct (MCD). has launched ‘Health Link', a healthcare trust fund for businesses and organisations with as few as 100 employees.
The scheme offers comprehensive third party administration, MCD's Treatment Sourcing Service (TSS) and stop loss insurance - for those employers who wish to put a cap on their trust's liability should treatment costs exceed the trust fund - as one fixed price package.
Jan Lawson, Chairman of MCD said, "This is bringing trusts as an option into the arena of small schemes, when this was not the case in the past. Each scheme stands on its own, however, and does not subsidise another.
She added: "In the past employers were wary of the upfront fees, the involvement of lawyers and the obligations of trustees, so traditionally these schemes were only considered by schemes of 1000 plus."
As an alternative to standard corporate healthcare provision, such as PMI, MCD said healthcare trusts can offer savings of up to 20% per annum. It added that healthcare trusts are tax efficient - Insurance Premium Tax IPT is only payable on the stop loss portion of the scheme and the administration charges are VAT recoverable.
Lawson added, "Although a healthcare trust is not suitable for every organisation, they should at least be considered by employers and their insurance advisers alongside other options in the decision making process."
MCD has access to all 450 UK private hospitals and NHS private patient units, over 20,000 consultants in all major specialities and to a network of over 350 MRI scanners.
