Vitality business health insurance

Vitality offers small business health insurance to companies with 1-249 employees and corporate health insurance for those with over 100 employees. If you have between 100 and 249 staff, you can choose your coverage based on your employees' and business needs. Both policies include core coverage with a full coverage promise, meaning they pay for all eligible treatments in full. They also provide various options to extend your coverage, plus the Vitality Programme, which gives your employees access to rewards for healthy living.

Here's the health insurance cover you can access with Vitality's small business health insurance.

Core cover

In-patient and day-patient treatment

Vitality health insurance includes in-patient and day-patient treatment with full cover for accommodation, surgery costs, consultant fees and tests if your employee is admitted to hospital.

Out-patient treatment

Health insurance providers are increasingly offering some out-patient services in their core coverage. Vitality's small business medical insurance covers out-patient surgical procedures, providing employees with quick treatment access once they have a diagnosis. There's also primary care coverage of up to £100 for private prescriptions and tests, and up to six sessions of out-patient physiotherapy treatment with 24/7 digital support.

Cancer cover

1 in 2 of us will be diagnosed with cancer in our lifetime, making cancer coverage a vital part of private health insurance. Vitality's cancer coverage includes surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, along with cutting-edge treatments such as stem cell treatment and hormone therapy. Employees receiving cancer treatment can also access practical support and contributions towards prostheses, wigs and mastectomy bras. There are also discounts on cancer screenings, subject to eligibility.

Mental health treatment

Vitality's core mental health coverage provides up to eight talking therapy sessions, including counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). The rewards programme also gives your team a subscription to the Headspace app, which provides access to mindfulness and meditation sessions to help your staff manage their mental well-being.

Virtual GP appointments

Online GP services let your staff book a GP appointment 24/7, meaning they can fit it around their work and other commitments. Vitality's core cover includes unlimited virtual GP appointments and up to two face-to-face consultations at £20 per appointment.

Care Hub

The Care Hub is a central, online resource that lets your employees manage their healthcare. They can book online GP appointments and direct access treatments, submit claims, choose a specialist and check progress. The hub also has copies of policy documents so they can check their coverage before claiming.

Additional benefits

Vitality provides various additional services, including:

• Private ambulance transfers
• Home Nursing
• A baby bonus when you give birth or adopt a child
• Parental accommodation if your child must stay in a hospital overnight.
• Oral surgery
• Weight loss or corrective surgery subject to eligibility and a 25% employee contribution
• Rehabilitation
• Treatment for pregnancy complications
• Access to care advice and discounted services
• Menopause support via the Peppy app
• Cash benefits if employees receive NHS care when their private health insurance would have covered it.

If you choose to include your employees' children on their policy, or offer to extend coverage if employees fund the premiums, the policy provides parental accommodation if the child is under 14 years old.

Optional extras

Vitality's private health insurance lets you tailor your coverage with optional extras. Some provide extended cover, while others let you add a broader range of treatments.

Out-patient cover

Your employees can access out-patient surgical procedures and six physiotherapy sessions as part of Vitality's core cover. If you want to ensure they can access more treatment sessions, diagnostic tests and consultant appointments for a speedy diagnosis, it's worth considering extending your out-patient coverage. You can choose full coverage or set a financial limit. If you decide to apply a limit, Vitality also offers a diagnostics upgrade that provides an extra allowance for diagnostic tests and scans.

Mental health cover

Adding extended mental health coverage to your policy gives your team access to unlimited counselling and CBT sessions. Coverage also includes up to 28 days of in-patient treatment and a further 28 days of day-patient care. What's more, if an employee has used their full allowance and is symptom-free for 56 days, Vitality will reset the allowance so they can have further treatment later if they need it.

Employee assistance programme

Vitality's Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) provides six face-to-face counselling sessions. The EAP also includes unlimited access to telephone helplines offering mental health support and guidance for financial and legal matters. The telephone helplines don't provide personalised advice but can signpost staff to other support services.

Therapies cover

While out-patient coverage can provide physiotherapy, Vitality's therapies coverage extends the range of available treatments. It covers two sessions with a dietician with a GP or consultant referral, plus the following treatments:

• Osteopathy
• Chiropody
• Acupuncture
• Homoeopathy
• Chiropractic treatment

Optical, dental and hearing cover

Optical, dental and hearing cover funds routine check-ups, including eye tests, as well as dental treatment and emergency care. If an employee's prescription has changed since their last eye test, they can claim for new glasses or contact lenses. The policy also covers dentures and hearing aids.

Travel cover

Vitality's worldwide travel insurance covers all kinds of travel disruption such as lost luggage, transport delays and cancellations. It also covers emergency medical treatment abroad, plus vaccinations and preventative medications like anti-malarials. What's more, your employees can use their policy for their personal travel plans.

Alternatively, you can choose emergency overseas cover for emergency medical treatment without the travel insurance.

Personal Health Fund

A personal health fund provides contributions towards health expenses such as NHS pre-payment certificates, private screening tests and GP appointments. They can also claim the cost of their routine dental checks and eye tests if their health insurance doesn't cover these.

Vitality provides its corporate health insurance to businesses with 100+ employees. It offers additional services to help employers manage the health needs of a larger workforce, including access to the Employer Zone digital platform and anonymised health data based on employee health assessments.

Here's what you can expect from the rest of Vitality's corporate health insurance.

Core coverage

Vitality's core health insurance coverage is the same for both corporate and small business health insurance policies. It provides access to in-patient treatment, mental health support and advanced cancer care with additional services for corporate customers.

Enhanced cancer cover

Vitality's advanced cancer coverage provides an extensive range of treatments and support services for staff receiving cancer treatment. With corporate coverage, they can access advice from nutritionists and financial advisers, and spend a day at a Champneys spa to relax or celebrate their recovery.

Mental health treatment

Private medical insurance typically excludes pre-existing conditions from coverage. However, this doesn't apply to mental health treatment with the corporate health insurance plan. Your team members can access care even if they've received treatment before.

Cover options

You'll find all the same optional extras on the corporate plan as you would with Vitality's small business policy, so you can tailor your coverage to suit your employees' needs.

On the corporate plan, you can also opt to add extra services to help you support staff well-being.

Workplace wellness support

As we've mentioned, your health insurance can provide insights into employees' health and well-being, helping you design health initiatives. The corporate plan goes one step further and provides resources to support you in devising workplace wellness challenges that can boost employee engagement and team morale. The Employee Challenge feature provides an app where you can create various health-based challenges. Employees can join individually or in teams and compete against their colleagues.

Vitality's rewards programme

Vitality's member rewards system was the first to reward customers for improving their health. All their health insurance customers can access the programme and earn points by engaging in physical activity, having a health assessment, using the Headspace app, among other things. Members can earn points for going to a qualifying gym, completing or volunteering at a Parkrun event, or using their fitness tracker to log activity. This can mean its accessibility depends on your employees' exercise preferences or ability to invest in the right tech, although the programme provides discounts to help. The programme also offers rewards and discounts, including free coffee, discounted cinema tickets and savings on spa days and hotel stays. The more points your employees earn, the better the rewards.

The programme includes employee health assessments that help your staff understand their current health and set well-being goals, and they can earn vitality points when they achieve them.

Vitality at Work Enterprise

If you have over 1000 employees, you can add the Vitality at Work Enterprise programme, which works on the same principles as the Vitality Programme. You'll also have a dedicated client manager who'll analyse the data from employee health assessments to provide tailored advice on your workplace well-being strategy. They'll also prepare reports on common health issues among your workforce, work-related health risks and employee engagement.

Every health insurance provider applies standard exclusions to their policies, meaning the policy won't cover certain types of treatment. Insurers also exclude pre-existing conditions for which an employee has received treatment during the five years before joining the policy.

Vitality's standard exclusions include:

• Emergency treatment
• Cosmetic surgery (other than the weight loss and corrective surgeries we mentioned)
• Straightforward pregnancy and childbirth
• Chronic conditions that doctors can manage but not cure, and recurring conditions.
• Organ transplants
• Developmental conditions or learning difficulties
• Alcohol or drug abuse treatment
• Self-inflicted injuries or those caused by criminal or reckless behaviour.

If you want to provide comprehensive health insurance on a budget, there are ways to reduce your premium. Equally, you can spend more to give your employees access to more options.

Excess

When you set an excess, your employee pays for part of the cost of their treatment. Vitality offers various excess levels, from £100 to £1,000. You can also choose whether an employee pays the excess per year or per treatment. Alternatively, you can link an excess of £150 or £250 to their Vitality status, reducing the excess based on their reward points. Setting the excess at a realistic level helps to ensure they use their health insurance.

Consultant and hospital list

Vitality automatically includes their 'Consultant Select' option, which gives your employees a choice of ten consultants when they claim. Alternatively, you can add a hospital list to broaden their options. The Countrywide list includes private hospitals and private NHS units across the UK, including some in London. The London Care list includes all approved private hospitals in London and the UK. Both lists also offer face-to-face GP appointments in six major cities.

Underwriting

The underwriting you choose affects your premium and your employees' claims experience. When you invest in private health insurance, pre-existing conditions are usually excluded for the first two years of coverage, which is known as the moratorium period.

Full medical underwriting

With full medical underwriting, your employees complete a medical history questionnaire when they join the policy. This ensures that exclusions for pre-existing conditions are clear from the outset, and claims are usually faster. It's often slightly cheaper than other options.

Moratorium underwriting

With moratorium underwriting, insurers review an employee's medical history after they claim, which can mean claims processing takes longer.

Continued personal medical exclusions underwriting

If you switch to Vitality from another provider, you may want to avoid adding new exclusions or extending the moratorium period. This is possible via two forms of underwriting, but it's usually complex, so it's worth speaking to a broker for advice.

Medical history disregarded underwriting

Medical history disregarded (MHD) underwriting means your employees can use their private health insurance to access treatment without any exclusions for a pre-existing condition. Vitality offers MHD underwriting to uninsured companies with 20+ employees or companies that already have MHD with another insurer.

At Globacare, we provide our clients with specialist advice to help them choose the right private medical insurance cover for their team. Contact us today for expert guidance tailored to your business.