Paul Gambon of Medicash Healthcare shines a light on how cash plans are increasing access to healthcare
It’s hard to avoid the word wellbeing in the employment sector right now. From the rapid changes in employee expectations, or the ways in which today’s companies are looking to engage the talent of a new generation; health & wellbeing have established themselves as the linchpin of corporate recruitment and retention strategies across the UK.
This has shown itself in the surging figures reported by health cash plan providers like Medicash, where our customer base has more than doubled in just five years. These figures point to an emerging culture of employer responsibility among today’s businesses.
Equal opportunity employee benefits
While a gap still seems to exist between the benefits available to senior and non-senior staff, health cash plans have increasingly become recognised as a ‘whole of workforce’ health benefit. By typically offering significantly lower premiums than private medical insurance, health cash plans present a distinctly affordable solution to employers seeking new health benefits for their workforce. In short, health cash plans are often able to provide an everyday form of healthcare cover for an employer’s full workforce rather than the typical approach of just offering PMI to a smaller selection of staff.
Health cash plans and PMI are both designed to cover different things, so many organisations have found that by dovetailing them together their employees benefit from the widest range of healthcare coverage. The main highlight of a health cash plan is its affordability, meaning each employee can receive the same basic level of cover on their everyday health and wellbeing, levelling the playing field when it comes to healthcare.
This is where health cash plans really shine as an employee benefit, giving employees a tangible product from which they and their families stand to gain. While offering in-house wellbeing benefits is always a fantastic choice for employers, cash plans can be distinguished by their usefulness – after all, we all have health that needs taking care of.
Our top three claiming areas every year are consistently optical, dental, and physiotherapy treatment, which stresses the everyday useability of the cash plan model as a non-discriminatory, universal health benefit. If you consider how many of your staff will have their teeth checked and how around two-thirds of us wear glasses or contact lenses, you will see why the appeal for support in this area is so wide.
Accessing technological solutions
A phrase we often use at Medicash is increasing access to healthcare, which is precisely the purpose of a health cash plan and one of the driving factors in its enduring popularity. This has been bolstered in recent times by the leaps in technology currently being seen across the world of healthcare, which have been quickly adopted by cash plan providers.
This includes virtual GP services, which have seen an overwhelming wave of usage since the pandemic as a means of promoting better access to healthcare; however, the scope is much greater than this implies.
By offering access to cutting edge health tech such as AI skin health assessments, digital physiotherapy pathways, and even genetic health insights, today’s health cash plans are able to not only provide access to otherwise premium healthcare services but diversify the ways in which individuals are able to proactively manage their own wellbeing.
Growing value, increasing employee engagement
At the heart of the surging interest in wellbeing is, of course, the growing potential for brand image as an employer of choice. New research from across the employment sector is seeing more and more evidence of employees valuing supportive work environments and auxiliary benefits as much as traditional draws such as salary. Above inflation salary increases are unsustainable for most employers to achieve so by offering meaningful benefits with tangible useability such as health cash plans, employers – especially companies seeking fresh talent – can capitalise on this interest and distinguish themselves as a caring employer who truly values their workforce beyond their productivity.
This is strengthened by new studies showing the impact of health & wellbeing support on not only reducing absences and presenteeism but also boosting engagement with employees, by building a genuine connection through meaningful support.
You can download a pdf of the full report here: Benefits Expert Corporate Healthcare and Cash Plan Round Table
