It’s easy to get caught up in the doom and gloom of the current economic climate. With all the bad news, it’s hard to see where opportunities for advisers may lie in the months ahead. However, there are still companies and markets continuing to thrive by offering great value and sound products.
PruHealth is the fastest growing PMI provider in the UK at the moment. There's no secret formula to this success - it's about delivering a product that adds real value and has quality insurance cover at its core. We help smaller companies compete in the labour market by offering broader benefits like the opportunity for subsidised gym membership and cash incentives to employees who aren't sick and don’t claim. We do this through our Vitality programme which supports and motivates employees to live a healthy lifestyle. And to assure clients that their premiums will be fair and won’t simply increase every year we offer a profit share where 25% of the unclaimed premium will be used to offset future costs.
Many small group medical insurance customers will only be aware of the biggest providers, so they’re ready to hear about something different, something that adds value like PruHealth.
Evidence of success
The PruHealth proposition of rewarding people for taking steps to look after their health, and in so doing providing a complete health and wellness programme, is really working. We have doubled our market share in the past year and now that we’re established in the market, we’re winning some really big corporate schemes as well as SME business – our corporate book now stands at over 100 clients.
2008 saw PruHealth win more awards from Health Insurance, Cover and ILP Moneyfacts and we also came No.1 in the CXI league for customer experience – that’s not just in the healthcare sector but across all UK companies! Our call centre customer satisfaction results are consistently higher than all other UK businesses and our South African operations have also won awards for best customer service and best offshore call centre.
When it comes to cover, your clients are in safe hands. Our cancer cover was given the gold standard by cancerbackup, one of only three providers to receive that recognition, partially due to the fact we cover treatment at every stage, cure and palliation. Our claims authorisation team is made up of clinically trained individuals and we have a highly skilled case management team for more complex claims.
And apart from excellent service and cover, the most noticeable impact we have on our members is that the Vitality programme actually helps them to be healthier. We’ve found that people who engage with the programme and move above Bronze status, claim just 40% of those on Bronze! It’s a win-win situation.
New at PruHealth
At PruHealth we pride ourselves on our innovation and continual development of our products and services.
In 2008, we launched four new Vitality partners so members now have the opportunity for great discounts on Polar Heart Rate Computers, Eurostar trips, Mark Warner holidays and Cineworld tickets. The more they do to look after their health, the bigger the potential discounts. It’s a great way to reward a healthy lifestyle with discounted leisure activities…much more the carrot than the stick!
We also developed our online functionality so members now have access to an interactive online experience where they can do a Vitality Review to assess their health, set goals to improve it, and then see the rewards they’re eligible for as a result. We’re making it easier and more rewarding for people to take action to improve their wellbeing.
Group clients are now also able to access a Health and Vitality Summary which gives information about Vitality engagement and employee health at a group level, helping them to target their health and wellbeing strategy, improve the health of their workforce and as the evidence suggests, often seeing a reduction in claims as a result.
The innovation continues… this year we have launched a new physiotherapy network provided by Nuffield Health, the UK’s leading private physiotherapy provider, improving the claims experience for members at a time when they need and appreciate it most. Also in March we launched our new Select Plan for individuals, offering more cover than our Essential Plan for less. Its been designed for those customers who are happy to pay a £250 excess and are less interested in gym membership, since they pay our Bronze rates for the gym regardless of Vitality status.
We’re not standing still – we’ve more plans in the pipeline to improve our product offering, increase our market share and achieve our goal of making people healthier and improving the quality of their lives. So keep your clients happy - make sure you include PruHealth in your panel for PMI quotations, be they for individual, SME or corporate business.
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