When you own or run a business and employ staff in the UK there are number of employee benefit options that you can choose to run alongside private medical insurance or as a totally independent plan. If private medical insurance is too costly for your annual budget, there are still plenty of lower cost cover types that help you as the business owner to comply with your duty of care without excessive cost implications. With staff being a valuable asset and employers carrying a certain amount of responsibility for staff within the workplace, ensuring you implement the right benefits that…

With October nearing a close it marks the end of Stoptober, the scheme which encourages smokers to stop smoking for the whole of October in an attempt to quit in the long term. Stopping smoking is hard but there are many different strategies that can be used for smoking cessation and we have listed some of these below: Medicines – such as nicotine replacement therapy or varenicline (Champix®) or bupropion hydrochloride (Zyban®). These have also been shown to help people to quit smoking. E-Cigarettes – battery powered vaporisers that enable inhalation of nicotine vapour. Unlike tobacco smoke, nicotine vapour does…

When you choose a private medical insurance policy either as an individual, family or business policy for your staff, have you considered the benefit in opting for a policy that will offer you a level of cover for dental claims? With fewer NHS dentists offering availability, more and more people in the UK are looking to private dentists for their treatment which inevitably results in an increase in treatment costs. If you do not want to take a stand alone dental policy there are a number of health insurance providers who will offer a dental add on to their policies….

Private Medical Insurance does not typically provide cover for ‘lifestyle’ surgery, or conditions that are not classed as acute. However, Vitality Health, one of the UK’s leading and most innovative private medical insurers on the market, offer their members cover for 5 lifestyle procedures, under their Lifestyle Surgery benefit, providing eligibility and age criteria’s can be met. What procedures are covered? – Gastric Banding – Gastric Bypass – Removal of port wine birthmarks on the face – Ear Reshaping (Pinnaplasty) – Breast reduction including treatment for excessive male breast tissue (gynaecomastia) However, for each of the above procedures covered, there…

If you have a company/business private medical insurance policy with AVIVA and are looking for ways to reduce your annual premium, have you considered the Selected Benefit reduction option 7? *By adding option 7 to your policy you will remove cover for the following: Emergency overseas cover Treatment for the complications of pregnancy and childbirth Investigations into the cause of infertility Surgical procedures on the teeth performed in a hospital Factors to consider before adding this option: The age profile of your scheme could affect your choice of adding option 7. If your staff members and their family are not…

April UK, an award-winning protection and health insurance specialist, provide their customers with even greater peace of mind through offering their policyholders 25% off the cost of all Bupa Health Assessments. What is a Health Assessment? A health assessment includes a set of tests and examinations to see whether you may have a particular disease or condition, even if you feel perfectly well, without any symptoms and/or signs of illness, helping to provide improved health outcomes through early detection. Health Assessments also provide an overview of your current general health, including cardiovascular health, diabetes risk and lung age and how…

This week is Back Care Awareness Week and BackCare, the UK’s National Back Pain Association, has partnered with kidsbacks4thefuture, a multi award winning social enterprise, to educate children and young people about the importance of taking care of their backs during childhood and teenage years. With many of the back and neck pain problems experienced by adults due to them not looking after their backs during childhood and teenage years, there are many ways we can teach children to take care of their backs and here are some effective tips provided by kidsbacks4thefuture, all of which can help prevent future…