Unum UK has entered the health cash plan market with the launch of Health Plan 360.
The employee benefits provider said its digital-first cash plan has been designed to be simple to use to help improve engagement and better reflect how employees manage their health today.
The move comes against the backdrop of rising workplace pressures, with sickness absence at its highest level for more than a decade and tighter budgets for employers looking to support staff.
Research commissioned by Unum shows the engagement challenges that employers face. Almost three quarters (73 percent) of employees said they don’t understand what a health cash plan is, while 17 percent of employers were unsure whether their organisation even offered one.
The provider’s new cash plan builds on six years’ experience delivering digital health and wellbeing support through its Help@hand service. Health Plan 360 combines cover for everyday costs such as dental care and physiotherapy with newer services including healthcare navigators. These services help individuals access the right care, book appointments and manage their wellbeing journey, via the Help@hand app.
Mark Till, CEO of Unum UK, said the plan was developed in partnership with advisers and employers to address the shortcomings of traditional health cash plans.
“We’ve built Health Plan 360 alongside advisers and businesses – not just for them – with the modern workplace in mind. Health Plan 360 is designed to overcome the challenges that have long held back traditional health cash plans – complexity, administration, and increasingly limited relevance to how people manage their health today,” Till said.
He added that with nearly 3 million people already protected by Unum in the UK, entering the cash plan market was a “natural step”, but stressed the insurer aimed to “reset it in a way that reflects the needs of advisers, employers, and employees.”
Jeremy Reid, client director at Partners&, which piloted the product earlier this year, said: “Unum’s Health Plan 360 brings a level of innovation that we have not seen to date in the market, focussing centrally on the needs of the client, and ensuring ease of access for the end user.”
Till emphasised that the product has been designed to deliver value across the board. “For advisers, it’s built to quote and administer at pace. For employers, it delivers measurable outcomes while easing the burden of administration. And for employees, it’s shaped around our research on what they want and are likely to use – helping them to live well and work better.”
