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Corporate Health Insurance London

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:48:10 +0000

Corporate health insurance in London is available to set up from 1 to over 150 + members. All main health insurance providers will offer corporate health insurance on either a new business or switch basis. You can go direct to the main corporate health insurance providers or get an independent health insurance expert to source the best deals available to you and negotiate on your behalf. In most cases this service is FREE and without obligation.

If you already have corporate health insurance you can Switch to another provider on a CPME basis (Continued Personal Medical Exclusion). CPME underwriting describes the process by which insurers accept a transfer in from another company. This process is almost exclusively in the company paid market and allows client companies to transfer one insurer to another on renewal without losing cover for conditions that arose after the start of the original scheme. CPME is also known by the following terms: Switch, No worse Terms and Protected Underwriting terms.

Underwriting the policy

If you starting a new policy you can there are 2 ways to underwrite the policy. Firstly, Full medical underwriting (FMU). This is the means by which medical insurance applications are written and accepted by the insurer. The client completes a lengthy application form, which includes questions about the medical history. The insurer will review the application and exclude from cover any serious pre-existing conditions or conditions that may arise from existing conditions or symptoms. Secondly, You can apply on Moratorium underwriting. Moratorium underwriting is the style of acceptance of a medical insurance application in which the client signs a declaration to accept that medical conditions or symptoms suffered in a period of time prior to the inception date (usually five years) are excluded from cover. If the member is free of symptoms, medication and medical advice for a period after inception (usually two years) the exclusion is lifted.

Finally there is Medical History Disregarded (MHD). Policies written on an MHD basis commit the insurer to all eligible medical expenses that occur after the inception date of a policy. This type of underwriting is usually limited to groups of more than 50 members.

How Do I buy Health Insurance? (UK)

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:42:53 +0000

How Do I buy Private Health Insurance? (UK) When you are considering purchasing Health Insurance there are a number of avenues you can go to get the right policy to suit you. The main three choices open to you are as follows: 1. Go direct to the Insurer 2. See the advise of an Independent Health Advisor or Broker 3. Insurance Agents ( Banks, Building Societies, Retail Outlets ) You can acquire quotes either over the phone, post, internet or face to face should you be happy to either visit or receive a visit from and a Health Insurance Specialist. Once you have decided what the best policy is for you the Insurer on receiving your application will process it and then send out your certification of membership. From the moment you receive this you are into what is termed “a cooling off period”. From the moment you receive your documentation you will normally have 14 days in which to change your mind if you so wish. If you do, any premiums that would have been taken will be returned and your policy cancelled. Some Insurers may arrange cover differently from above like over the phone. However cover will normally be provisional until they receive a completed application form

What Is Health Insurance?

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:39:49 +0000

Private health insurance in the UK is designed to cover the costs of private treatment for what are commonly known as acute conditions. Most insurers in the UK define an acute condition as a disease, illness or injury that is likely to respond quickly to treatment which aims to return you to the state of health you were in immediately before suffering the disease, illness or injury, or which leads to your full recovery. Most people buy this type of insurance to gain the reassurance of knowing that treatment is available promptly, if they become ill or are injured. As a private patient you can choose when treatment will take place, the specialist who treats you and the hospital. You will usually have the privacy of an en-suite room complete with TV and other home comforts. Some illnesses and treatments will not be covered and these are common to most policies. Examples of these are conditions you had before taking out the insurance (commonly known as pre-existing conditions), GP services, cover for long term illnesses that cannot be cured (chronic conditions) and accident and emergency admission. It is important to note that private health insurance is not designed to replace all the services of the NHS. Some such as accident and emergency, are beyond the scope of private hospitals. The type of policies and level of cover you can receive normally come in 3 phases: Budget With this type of policy normally only inpatient treatment is covered, this means that diagnostic tests, Consultant’s fees and outpatient treatments are not covered. This type of policy best suits those who can afford to pay their own outpatient tests and consultants fees from savings leaving the policy to pay for the most expensive treatments such as operations. Some insurers will include diagnostic tests and consultants fees if this later results in an inpatient hospital stay. Inpatient radiotherapy and chemotherapy is covered by most insurers on budget polices. Inpatient treatment is covered in full. Standard This type of policy covers full inpatient treatment such as operations and a range of outpatient treatments. Specialist consultations and diagnostic procedures, including pathology, radiology computerised tomography, MRI Scans, radiotherapy and chemotherapy up to a limit of anything between £500 – £2000 depending on the insurer. Normally Therapies such as treatment by registered Osteopaths, Chiropractors, Physiotherapists, Homeopaths and Acupuncturists will also be covered again up to specified limits that vary between insurers. Comprehensive Comprehensive policies are very much top-of-the-range healthcare solutions. They typically include full inpatient cover, unlimited outpatient cover as described above, MRI, and CT scans and other benefits such as psychiatric cover, travel cover, dental cover, home nursing costs, chiropody, recuperative care and incidental hospital expenses (telephone calls, newspapers etc). For complete peace of mind this is the type of policy you should choose. However modular flexible type policies are increasingly becoming more popular as this allows the customer to tailor the cover to their exact needs and suit their budget.

Health Insurance In The UK

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:35:23 +0000

You can never predict a medical emergency or illness in family. Whenever these things happen, you are thrown into a bewildering situation and left to running from pillar to post to organize proper medical treatment on one hand and simultaneously arrange funds and other resources to defray the costs on the other. It’s a real challenge, and the trauma for the attending members is nothing less compared to what the patient is going through. Despite the best efforts of the Government, the NHS is always an overstrained facility. No doubt, it has the best doctors, the best diagnostic systems, and the best operating equipments but its resources are far too short than that of actual requirement. It can certainly be the best place to handle emergencies, but when it comes to planned medical treatment, it’s high time to consider other viable alternatives. What most patient families look out for is a systematic and holistic approach to treatment that involves less worries and anxiety. In those critical times, they want quick access to treatment, easy hospitalization benefits, provision for specialized treatment and host of other similar facilities for the patient. As a one-stop solution to all these issues, Private Health Insurance in the UK is increasingly becoming a very popular alternative. Private Health Insurance comes in different packages. It can be subscribed by anybody from an individual to a corporate body. It can have limited to full coverage, including coverage for specialized treatment options. There are generally two bases of underwriting a health insurance policy. In the Moratorium coverage plan, medical conditions that you have had during the last 3 to 5 years are excluded from cover normally for the first two consecutive years of the policy. In the Full Medical History Underwriting plan, the Insurer considers your medical history normally within five years and offers coverage, sometimes on special terms and conditions on case-to-case basis. No other facility offers this sort of personalized package. Some illnesses, pregnancy related ailments and self-inflicted conditions do not come under the purview of Private Health Insurance plans

The Different Types of Cancer Treatment

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:20:33 +0000

Millions of people die from cancer every year, all around the world. It is one of the most common causes of death. However, it is the complications involved in the disease and the effect it has on the body that kills, not the disease itself. Cancer treatments can sometimes lie at the cause of death, due to their attack on the immune system. There are, like with all illnesses, risks involved in the treatment process. This leaves patients in a ‘Catch-22′ as without treatment your condition will deteriorate, but the treatment may leave your body vulnerable. An operation to remove the cancerous cells is the fist stage in the treatment process, so long as the cancer is detained in an organ or specific area of the body. Surgery is therefore the most promising type of treatment for a cancer which has been caught in the early stages. The operation will likely be followed up with other treatments, taken as a precaution. However, operating becomes more complex when the cancer has spread or is at risk of spreading. Even though an operation would remove the root cancer cells, once the cells have multiplied complications are far more likely. There are treatments which, through a specialised method will ‘freeze’ the cancer and stop it from spreading any further. Depending on how early the cancer is diagnosed, the second stage of treatment is often chemotherapy. Chemotherapy acts by killing cells that divide rapidly which is the one of the main properties of cancerous cells. Chemotherapy kills all cells that divide and therefore also attacks healthy cells, most commonly in the bone marrow, hair and stomach. With a long or repeated course of chemotherapy, each individual cancer cell will have been targeted to stop the division of cells or the contamination of the healthy cells. This does however leave the healthy cells unable to redevelop, and they may eventually die. Chemotherapy is administered either orally or it is injected. The level prescribed will depend upon the severity of the cancer and the patients well being. When the body rejects the chemotherapy, the patient has to make regular visits to the hospital to be injected. Radiotherapy is another type of cancer treatment. Radiotherapy has two uses; firstly it can be used to control the malignant cells by shrinking the cancer down with subatomic particles as part of the recovery process and secondly it can be used as a part of palliative care, to control the disease and buy time for patients and their families. The success of radiotherapy is dependent upon the patients pain threshold at the time of treatment. Patients rarely give up because of the cancer itself, instead due to the difficulties and the repercussions of the treatment on the immune system and the body itself. There are many other cancer treatments available and the number of treatments continues to grow as medical professionals the world over try and fight this disease. None of the treatments are effortless or simple. The treatment takes its toll on every aspect of the patients life. The best course of action is to live a healthy lifestyle and prevent the disease as best as we can.

UK Health Insurance for 2011

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:18:45 +0000

The health insurance market in the UK in 2011 is again set to show limited growth with insurer’s mainly trying to maintain their market share. Some providers will certainly set their targets high and want to increase their already set health insurance portfolio’s. BUPA is still the largest provider in the UK followed by AXA PPP. Other providers such as AVIVA will certainly be setting themselves up for further growth in the health insurance market place. The personal PMI market will I believe be more open but the main growth will be in the Business SME market. There is no doubt that the Business marketplace remains the key battleground with companies searching for new and better deals from their providers. New start up companies that are looking to offer Health insurance as a benefit to their employees will find many providers offering excellent benefits and premiums. There are many types of private health cover available to suit a wide range of needs. The key to making private medical insurance affordable is to compare costs of the various plans and choose the ones that are most necessary for your family or individual situation. You can choose from dozens of insurers offering many different packages, levels of cover and policy options to find the best mix to suit your medical needs and budget. Private Health Insurance comes in different packages. It can be subscribed by anybody from an individual to a corporate body. It can have limited to full coverage, including coverage for specialized treatment options. There are generally two bases of underwriting a policy. In the Moratorium coverage plan, medical conditions that you have had during the last 3 to 5 years are excluded from cover normally for the first two consecutive years of the policy. In the Full Medical History Underwriting plan, the Insurer considers your medical history normally within five years and offers coverage, sometimes on special terms and conditions on case-to-case basis. No other facility offers this sort of personalized package. Some illnesses, pregnancy related ailments and self-inflicted conditions do not come under the purview of Private Health Insurance plans. Take time and get a full market research done for you. Use a independent advisor that will offer best advice.

UK Health Insurance Facts

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:14:42 +0000

Health insurance in the UK is offered by a variety of mainstream providers. The largest health insurance provider in the UK is BUPA closely followed by AXA PPP. Other providers in the UK are Aviva, Standard Life, Health On Line, Groupama& BCWA. Health insurance is designed to offer fast medical attention for acute conditions. Acute meaning something that can be cured. It is not designed for continual long term treatment or chronic illness. Also there are certain conditions that traditionally depending on the provider are not covered by insurance cover. For example: pre-existing conditions prior to your purchasing the insurance, incurable conditions, expected conditions: natural side effects of puberty or ageing, allergies, deafness, vaccinations, preventative screening, some NHS primary care services: accident & emergency admission, GP services, dental treatment, chiropody & foot care, some drugs: NHS prescriptions, outpatient drugs and experimental treatment drugs, care abroad: non-emergency treatment abroad, reproductive care: for regular pregnancies (female policyholders only), fertility treatment and infertility treatment, abortion: (female policyholders only), serious conditions: organ transplant, kidney dialysis, HIV and AIDS, learning difficulties &behavioural problems, choice treatments: gender transition, cosmetic surgery and dentistry, weight-loss surgery, ‘avoidable’ conditions: self-inflicted injuries, drug, including alcohol, abuse extreme risk and injuries sustained in war, practising a hazardous hobby, sport or occupation. As you can most of these are pretty much common sense with regards to what a health provider would not cover. The main area of pre existing conditions is determined in the underwriting. If your policy is FMU (Full Medical Underwriting) then you will be asked to fill in a medical declaration on application. This then is passed to an underwriter of the insurance company who makes the decision on any exclusions on your policy based on the information you submitted. If you have a moratorium policy then as a rule any condition you have had treatment, symptom, medication or advice for in the previous 5 years will not be covered for the first 2 consecutive years of the policy. After that period it may become eligible for treatment as long as you have remained free of any issues during that 2 year consecutive period. Health insurance in the UK is still popular and statistics are showing a growing market. As with most things insurers battle to keep costs under control and make the insurance as cost effective as possible for all. If you are searching for health insurance for the first time or a renewal and searching for a better deal it would be recommended to speak with a specialist advisor. This way you will get best advice on your health insurance needs.

Getting the Best Advice on Health Insurance

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:12:48 +0000

Health Insurance Advice. With health insurance having become as complicated as it is, understanding what kind of coverage you or your family needs and what type of policy best meets those requirements is a challenging task. The best way to get the right kind of policy is the get the right kind of advice. There are three sources for this advice and although it may take a little time, checking with all three is the best way forward. Check on the internet. Visit online forums and see what people have to say about their health insurance experiences. Read reviews posted online. Try to find chat rooms and chat with people who have made claims and see what their experience has been and what tips they can give you. Talk to an insurance adviser who can offer you insurance products from a variety of companies because he is not tied to any one. His advice will be free of prejudices caused by company loyalties. For this reason, try to stay away from agents who represent a specific company because their interest is in selling the companies products and external options are irrelevant to them. Contact the Association of British Insurers (ABI) or visit their website at: abi.org.uk. They are the industry body and have numerous publications on health insurance that will be of great help. Having done your research and gotten all the advice you need, if not too much, the next step is to remember that you cannot blindly believe everything you have been told. Online reviews can be often influenced by biases arising out of ignorance. Opinions expressed may be motivated. And sometimes reviews of insurance products and companies maybe motivated by a variety of reason and bear no reflection of the truth. Similar is the case of insurance advisers. While an adviser is supposed to be independent of any company influence since he will earn his commission whichever company you buy your policy from, the fact remains that even advisers are subject to influences and prejudices, both conscious and unconscious. For example a specific policy or company that is offering a higher commission may affect what he tells you, as may a low commission. Or any personal issues he has with a company. Even the ABI maybe looking at insurance issues from a perspective that is different from yours, since your situation may be unique in some respects. What advice they give may be the best for the general public but may not be the best for you and any special circumstances you maybe subject too. So what do you do if you cannot blindly rely on the advice you receive from all these sources? The answer is the find all the areas where if not all, at lease 2 of the 3 sources are in agreement. That is advice you can generally accept. If there is no agreement on an issue, the safest option is to go with what the ABI says. The advice may not be tailored specifically for you, but at least it will be free from bias and other prejudicial considerations. And of course, do not be afraid to ask questions – as many and as often as you like. If the answers are not clear, keep asking until they are. Remember that the issue here is not the cost of the premium but your health and that of your family. Having the wrong policy and suddenly finding it does not offer you the coverage you need can leave you in an impossible situation because you have been depending on your health insurance and have no fall back option.

Cheap UK Health Insurance

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:10:20 +0000

In order to get cheap health insurance in the UK you need to take a certain amount of criteria in to consideration. Firstly, age is a defining factor. The older you are the more expensive it is and the the more cover you want again the more expensive it gets. The main area is out patients. What I mean by this is that the higher level of outpatient cover you have the more expensive your policy will be. If you have a policy that will cover for In patient only but covers specific areas of outpatient treatment such as scans and cancer treatment then there are some really good deals on offer in the market place. You can also consider a high excess on your policy. This way you will get a significant discount depending on how much you are willing to pay as an excess. This can vary from £50 to £1000 depending on the provider and the specific policy that you will be offered. There are policies on the market where you can share the responsibility with the provider. This has been around for a fair few years now and many people favour this type of cover. The cost of health care has increased substantially over the past decade, so it should be no surprise that the cost of private medical insurance has followed suit. With premiums up from around annually to 18 according to Data Monitor, it is becoming harder for many people to afford private medical insurance at all. It without doubt pays to shop around with different health insurance providers and brokers. You will be amazed how sometimes you can get good deals whether you are looking for a new policy or if you have an existing policy that you are just looking for a better deal. Health insurance in the UK is still very popular and statistics are showing a growing market. As with most things insurers battle to keep costs under control and make the insurance as cost effective as possible for all. If you are searching for health insurance for the first time or a renewal and searching for a better deal it would be recommended to speak with a specialist advisor. This way you will get best advice on your health insurance needs. Some policies do combine the option with NHS facilities. This is a good way to reduce premium. Either way it pays to get the best advice in all this circumstances. A good professional health insurance broker will always guide you in the right direction.

Is Health Insurance Worth Taking Out?

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 03:33:42 +0000

The question in the UK whether health insurance is worth taking out is often asked. Not only from people that do not have a plan in place but often by those who do already have a plan in place. The reasons for this are a few but mainly that they may find because they have never claimed they find it an added expense. However, in most cases it comes down to the fact that if they had a medical complaint they would be glad they had it in place in most cases. Being treated in a private hospital has been seen in an increasingly positive light and has raised the number of private medical insurance (PMI) policies, that are being taken out by patients, as the treatment, care and MRSA infection risks that are apparent throughout NHS hospitals worries a large number of people. A survey conducted by Saga Private Medical Insurance also noted that more than two thirds of people noted that the cleanliness – or more correctly, the lack there of – in NHS hospitals was worrying and made them choose private medical services. Moreover BUPA, a health insurance provider noted that there was a 20 per cent increase in the sales level of PMI, in the first quarter of this year than in the same period in 2007. However these PMI are found to cover only a certain amount of medical procedures and people, so the question of its necessity is in the minds of key industry figures. What is and is not covered depends on individual PMI policies; however they are generally designed to cover acute conditions such as disease, illness or injury that can be treated fully. The benefits of PMI are that the policy holder can be treated quickly, the can also have a choice of specialists and hospitals, where they are to receive the treatment. PMI policies The biggest exclusion clause on PMI polices is for pre-existing medical conditions, in patients. On most occasions, medical conditions that have been suffered during the five years before a PMI policy is take out, will not be covered. Also non-disclosure of any previous conditions could also make the insurance policy invalid and invalidate any claims that the holder may wish to take out. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) however, noted that treatments relating to HIV/Aids, gender reassignment and infertility were not covered by PMI policies. Also excluded from the standard policies, were dental treatment and organ transplants, however some insurance providers were found to provide cover for such treatments. The ABI has released clarifications on non-disclosure rules that will make it harder for insurers to refuse claims. However policy holders have been warned that it is still easy for people to be caught out. Medical history Michael Vine, of Michael Vine & Co, the solicitors, says: “Insurers want to know your medical history, which you detail on a proposal form. Even if you complete this to the best of your knowledge, it is difficult to remember every reason for obtaining medical advice or treatment for the period requested. If you fail to disclose something – no matter how apparently irrelevant – for the period, they could refuse your claim.” Mr. Vine suggests that you authorise your proposed insurer to examine your medical records at the time of application, adding: “This might help in the event of a claim dispute if the insurer subsequently alleges non-disclosure.” A spokesman for Tesco, which recently started selling medical insurance, says: “The last thing anybody wants is to be surprised with a nasty bill for an expensive procedure. If our customers are worried that their insurance might not provide cover for any treatment, we advise them to call a helpline for clarification.” Mike Izzard, chairman of the Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries (AMII), also added that: “Choosing PMI is a minefield. It is a very complicated market and is too important to get wrong. It is not like buying car insurance. If you get your health cover wrong, you are messing with life and death with private health insurance.”