Employer Health Cash Plans are a great way for businesses to provide such health and wellbeing benefits to employees. They can offer:

  • Cashback for routine dental and optical care, complementary therapies (e.g. physiotherapy) and chiropody
  • Virtual GP appointments
  • Alternative therapies such as reflexology and hypnotherapy
  • Payments if an employee has to stay in hospital
  • Access to telephone helplines to assist with health issues and stress.

And, crucially for businesses, Health Cash Plans provide health and wellbeing services at what’s usually a much more affordable price than full blown Group Health Insurance.

Drewberry’s 2021 Employee Benefits and Workplace Satisfaction Survey reveals a rise in demand for insurance benefits since Drewberry’s last edition in 2019. Over this period:

  • The proportion of workers wanting their employer to offer a Health Cash Plan rose at a percentage rate of 15.2%
  • The proportion of workers wanting their employer to provide Group Health Insurance saw a percentage rate increase of 12.8%
  • There was a massive percentage rate increase of 264.2% in terms of employees wanting access to digital GP services.

“The current economic backdrop due to COVID-19 means many companies have put a pin in plans to roll out benefits,” says Nadeem Farid, Head of Employee Benefits at Drewberry. “However, employee demand for benefits such as insurances that help manage their health and wellbeing is up notably.

“It’s therefore worth asking if, as a business, putting a pin in rolling out benefits is the right move, even given current circumstances. For example, our survey shows that more than 1 in 5 workers said employee benefits were an important consideration when seeking a new job.

“While the proportion of workers looking to move jobs in the next 12 months is down, and there’s more slack in the labour market now than there was in 2019, it won’t stay that way forever. Employee benefits are investments in your workforce that may well become increasingly necessary given current employee attitudes if you want to attract the best talent and retain existing staff. In the long-term, not providing them may well be a false economy.

“It’s in trying to balance increased employee demand for health and wellbeing benefits with companies’ current needs to keep a lid on costs that I often find myself recommending Health Cash Plans to clients whose budgets don’t quite stretch to full Group Health Insurance.

“With many modern Health Cash Plans offering access to benefits such as remote GP services, cashback for outpatient therapies such as physiotherapy and even cashback for diagnostic tests and scans, you can offer access to or at least reimbursement for many of the benefits Private Health Insurance offers at a fraction of the monthly premium.”

Paul Gambon, Sales & Marketing Director at Medicash says: “The results of this survey certainly echo our findings at Medicash. We have noted a significant increase in demand from employers keen to address wellbeing across their organisation whilst being understandably conscious of cost. Medicash had a record-breaking number of new sales in 2020, despite the pandemic, as employers were quick to identify the need for their staff to have useful, everyday wellbeing tools to help them during the effects of the lockdown.

“The introduction of multiple new digital wellbeing tools during the year gives a new approach to health cash plans, including mProve YOURSELF which is designed to help with physical and mental health, and SkinVision which allows staff to use an app to monitor for signs of skin cancer, were fundamental to our success in addressing this need. The ability to access our benefits remotely meant that staff have great value from their plan, and we will continue to grow in this digital space to fulfil the appetite of our clients.”