The process of implementing a health cash plan in your business

To promote positive health and wellbeing in a workplace, businesses have begun to offer a range of benefits to their employees, health cash plans being one of these. Health cash plans take the financial burden away from everyday healthcare costs and this can easily be implemented within your business. Health plans can be implemented by researching into different providers, understanding your business and employee requirements and looking into different cover options available.

What is a health cash plan?

Many businesses offer health cash plans to their employees as a benefit. These are schemes whereby a monthly fee is paid, entitling those who have opted in to have routine medical expenses covered. For example, dental appointments, opticians and physiotherapy sessions will all be covered up to a specific cost. An individual will simply go to their appointment as they usually would, pay the bill and keep the receipt. The expenses from this can then be claimed by sending off the proof of payment and then a few days later, the cost will be reimbursed to your employee.

Why businesses should offer a health cash plan

There are so many benefits to offering a health cash plan to employees. Firstly, it will help your employees’ salaries go that little bit further, as they will get their money back for routine check-ups. This will give an extra incentive to stay within the business and want to give back. It helps to encourage staff members to think proactively about their health and improve the company’s wellbeing services. Not only will implementing this benefit be advantageous to your employees, but to your business too. When employees’ health is a priority, they will be able to perform better at work, be more productive and feel happier in the workplace. In addition, you will likely see reduced absenteeism at work as people will be in overall better health.

The process

The process of implementing a health cash plan in your business is fairly simple. After a bit of research into types of cover, employee needs and providers, the plans can be easily implemented. Whilst the exact process will differ between providers, the typical structure is as follows:

Choosing the right plan for your business

Depending on your business requirements and employee needs, you’ll need to choose what type of plan is right for your business. You should think about who will be paying for this benefit. Some providers offer employee-paid plans as well as employer-paid, which option is best for you? Do you need to be relatively flexible when it comes to the type of services covered? The lower cost brackets will have a lower limit on expenses covered, whereas premium covers have more expenses covered. A typical health cash plan includes:

• Dental appointments
• Opticians
• 24/7 telephone GP access
• Extra wellbeing services
• Childrens cover

Choosing a provider

There are many providers that offer health cash plans for businesses. When it comes to deciding upon which is best for you and your employees, there are a range of factors to look at. What does the plan cover? What do your employees need? How many employees will sign up? What is your budget? Once you understand the requirements, you can narrow down your search and find the best provider for your business.