Music to the ears of Financial Directors

Date: 01/06/2005

…affordable employee healthcare benefits

Medicash, one of the UK’s leading health insurers, has designed two new and unique healthcare products specifically for the corporate market, which will serve as affordable but perceived high value employee benefits for the corporate market.

Medicash Reward and Medicash First have been designed to offer lifestyle benefits that can be used to promote members’ good health and well-being.

The flexible plans result from extensive market research among employers over the last 12 months and have been tailor-made to enhance the health of the company as well as its employees.

Starting at just £10 per employee per month, Medicash Reward is a company paid for positive action plan that employers can use to help ensure the health of their workforce and improve their working and personal lives. This makes it the ideal employee benefit for companies tackling issues like absence or struggling with the recruitment and retention of staff. It includes:

Valuable payments of up to £150 towards the costs of dental and optical treatments so employees can afford regular checkups and treatments
A voucher for a health-screening test, which aims to spot potential healthcare problems in employees and motivate them to take responsibility for staying healthy
Payment of up to £400 towards professional healthcare treatments such as physiotherapy, reflexology, osteopathy and acupuncture, which help to relieve the symptoms caused by stress, recurring illness and muscular pain – the second most significant cause of absence after minor illness
A stress helpline and up to six sessions of face-to-face stress counselling to help reduce the estimated 13.4 million days a year lost to the problem
Discounted membership at UK health and fitness clubs such as Fitness First and LA Fitness so employees can stay fit and, by doing so, maintain good health
Payments of up to £400 towards the costs of consultancy to help nip in the bud any problems that might occur and get your staff seen quicker

Starting at just £9.75 per month, Medicash First is another healthcare cash plan that gives members the necessary tools to take responsibility for their own health. It is a company sponsored plan which employees for pay by direct debit or payroll deduction. Features include:

Telephone helplines giving advice on issues such stress, debt, redundancy, infertility, bereavement, diet and lifestyle, allergy and food intolerance
Payment of up to £72 per night inpatient hospital stay
Personal accident cover of up to £36,000
Payment of up to £900 for the birth of a child
Payments of up to £240 towards the costs of dental and optical treatments
A voucher for a health-screening test, which also gives access to online tools for keeping healthy such as dietary sheets and home exercise programmes.
Discounted membership at UK health and fitness clubs

With absence through ill health costing the economy over £12.2 billion per year it makes sense for businesses to invest in Medicash’s corporate products. For example

In a business with 100 employees and £9 million annual sales, one employee contributes £90,000 in revenue.
Therefore, four per cent absence per year will cost the company £360,000.
However, to provide all staff with Medicash Reward would cost just £15,000, which means with absence levels of just 1/6 of one percent would seeing it paying for itself.

Commenting on Medicash’s new corporate products Chief Executive, Bill Gaywood said: “During our research the one thing that came across again and again was that Finance Directors wanted an affordable employee benefit, which was accessible to the majority of the workforce and not just a select few. They get this with healthcare cash plans and the added bonus is that the new ones we have introduced are of huge benefit to the employer too.

“Medicash Reward has been designed to benefit both the employer and employee. We believe the stress helpline and option of face-to-face counselling will be particularly fruitful because stress can result in high staff turnover, poor work performance, bad time keeping and costly absence from work.

“Companies can use this facility as part of their stress management and employee assistance programmes and by doing so, possibly reduce the risk of fines by the Health and Safety Executive or legal action by employees.

“Medicash Reward is also an affordable but perceived high value employee benefit so staff will feel cared for which, in turn, can improve motivation, morale and retention.

“With Medicash First we have given employees tools they can use to help keep themselves healthy but should they fall ill, the plan will also help pay towards the costs of treatments. Employees seeking treatments when they need to rather than when they can afford to will stop problems reaching a stage where valuable time has to be taken off work.

“A lot of research has gone into designing these new products and we are confident that we have provided two affordable healthcare solutions to suit the needs of businesses small and large”.

For further information call Paula Hunter at Kenyon Fraser on 0773 9989915 or Darren Nugent on 0151 706 9993. Email paula@kenyons.co.uk or darren@kenyons.co.uk

Notes to Editors

Medicash is a not-for-profit health insurer, providing affordable healthcare solutions to hundreds of thousands of individuals, families, and workplaces throughout the UK.

Medicash plans not only provide real help with the costs of everyday healthcare such as dental and optical treatment, but also offer financial support for more serious and unexpected injuries such as broken bones and hospital stays.

Corporate customers include the civil service, county and metropolitan councils, United Utilities, UNISON, the largest trade union in the country, and retailer Littlewoods.

Medicash and its associated charities has donated over £400,000 to NHS-based charities in the last three years and was the recipient of the 2004 Liverpool Daily Post Business Awards Community Award.

Medicash also operates two convalescent centres in Colwyn Bay, providing care for almost two thousand residents during 2004

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