Do Companies That Offer Private Medical Insurance Have A Competitive Edge?

We can’t escape the fact that employee healthcare is an important sweetener in remuneration packages. Many of our clients in recent months have approached us about their own employee PMI packages and to meet this increase in demand our healthcare team has produced a dedicated new brochure.

It’s clear that to attract and secure potential business talent, both large corporates and SMEs alike need to adopt innovative packages to ensure a ‘healthy and happy’ workforce.

According to the Daily Telegraph, employee PMI is advantageous over the equivalent in pay – on which they would have to pay tax, and in some cases, employees would sacrifice some of their annual salary to gain the benefits of a company’s Private Healthcare scheme.

However, it isn’t just employees feeling the benefits from PMI; the Office for National Statistics found that in 2013, 131 million working days were lost due to sickness absence in the UK. The preventative measures companies are now taking by introducing private healthcare look to drastically reduce these lost days by helping to improve their staff’s overall health.

Research carried out by Mercer March Benefits shows cardiovascular and cancer claims are the greatest cost to companies, many of which are life-style related. Author of the report, Amy Laverock said: “Through access to personalised multi-disciplinary health advice, monitoring and even pharmaceutical care, companies can address these lifestyle choices, improve the health of their workers, improve their productivity, reduce absences and crucially manage corporate medical costs.”

As the debate on whether employees can afford to rely on the NHS rages on, the clear benefits of providing private healthcare only add fuel to the fire.

We have found from our clients that PMI is an increasingly popular and effective way to guarantee employee access to the UK’s finest medical facilities, thus helping businesses to keep the best talent from their sector incentivised whilst safeguarding themselves against unexpected costs.

Please email tony.hulatt@russellscanlan.com to receive a copy of the new brochure or to talk to a member of the team.