Leading cash plan provider Medicash is revitalising its corporate health plans to make them even more competitive in the market and to meet the growing needs of their corporate customers.
On the back of its recent research with over 1,000 corporate decision makers, intermediaries and policyholders it is making changes to its core offerings to make them more relevant to the needs of businesses today.
Optical and dental continue to be the main appeal of cash plans and so Medicash is increasing these benefits on its best-selling Proactive health plan to £70 each on Level 1. It is also increasing the level of Chiropody benefit from £20 to £50 on Level 1, without changing the price.
In addition, following the successful launch of its Virtual GP Service, Medicash is extending this to include free unlimited virtual GP consultations for all employees on its updated Proactive and Plus health plans. Medicash Plus will also see the inclusion of discounted health club membership and the Best Doctors InterConsultation service across all levels. The Best Doctors service provides access to the best medical minds in the world, ensuring that users can get a second opinion on their medical condition and treatment plan without the need for any additional visits to the doctor.
The entry level price for Medicash Plus remains at 95p per employee, per week and Medicash Proactive at £1 per employee, per week for groups of 25+. Medicash Proactive is also available for groups of 10-24, starting at just £1.15 per employee, per week.
Medicash continues to invest in technology, in particular its app, and has introduced a number of new features to increase focus on the important topic of mental health and wellbeing, including a new ‘Mindfulness Zone’. This new feature will be available to all policyholders and will allow them to access a series of guided meditations, breathing exercises, mental wellbeing and nutritional advice.
Sue Weir, chief executive at Medicash said: “Over the last few years we’ve worked hard to significantly lower our operating expenses so that we could give more back to our customers in terms of enhanced benefits. The importance of mental wellbeing is rightly catching on within the whole corporate market, not just with the larger employers, and we are delighted to be able to expand our services in this area too.”
On 1 November 2019 Medicash will be changing its Employee Assistance Programme provider to Care First. There will be no change to the core services for existing users, but it will bring some additional benefits. The main one is the introduction of the Woebot app for all policyholders who have access to the full EAP, further helping those suffering with mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. This internationally recognised app runs on an artificial intelligence platform can offer ‘in the moment’ emotional support to more employees than any other clinical method.
Woebot allows users to track their mood, identify patterns and provide insight into issues or concerns that the user may not have realised were causing them emotional distress. Amongst other things, Woebot can help employees tackle their financial worries, relationship problems, chronic pain, sleep or insomnia issues, loneliness, grief or addiction. It can also instantly connect the user to a trained human counsellor when it is identified that additional support is required.
Paul Gambon, sales and marketing director added: “Woebot is a great addition to our premium employee assistance package. Typically, employee assistance programmes support between 4 and 12% of the workforce, but with Woebot engagement levels can increase to over 40%. Adding a service that has international recognition and has been written about by The Times and The Washington Post is a really big deal for Medicash and we look forward to rolling this out across our existing and future customers.”