Most employees agree that good health coverage is one of the best benefits an employer can offer. As an employer, if you offer viable corporate insurance plans, you increase retention, lower absenteeism, and significantly improve your recruitment. It is also important to keep in mind that group policies are highly customizable so you can modify almost all aspects of a plan to suit your company’s exact needs. And they do not have a waiting period which means that your employees can enjoy its protection from the very first day itself. Investing in a good plan, therefore, not only makes sense financially (tax benefits) but improves the health of your human resource in the long run.
So, what should you look for when trying to decide the best corporate insurance plan for your employees?
The cost of the plan
As an employer look at the cost of the plan to yourself and to the employee. Can the company bear the entire cost or would the employees have to contribute too? If the employees have to contribute then is the contribution in line with their salaries? You can also opt for adding coinsurance or sub-limits to specific features of a plan to make the plan more affordable.
Coinsurance and deductibles
The employer has to see if the employee can afford the coinsurance and deductibles. A Co-insurance of, say 10 percent, means that for a claim of Rs. 100, the insured will have to pay Rs. 10 and the insurer will pay Rs. 90. And a deductible of 10 percent means that only after the insured person paid Rs. 10 that the insurer will start covering the remaining Rs. 90. A good plan is one which is both affordable by the company and ensures the least out-of-pocket expense from the employees.
Another point to notice here is that you can customise coinsurance and sub-limits on different features of a plan. For example, you can put the cap on ambulance charges to say Rs. 500, or you can cap hospital room charges at say Rs. 1,000 a day. Or you can add coinsurance clauses to certain procedures like maternity, opd etc. that may be highly expensive to cover. These slight modifications can help you create a highly customised plan that is both affordable by the company and beneficial for the employee.
Group Policy Or Group Policy Plus Personal Accident Policy?
A group policy will provide cover to your employees during illness but the addition of a personal accident policy can secure them and their family in case of an unexpected accident. A good personal accident policy can provide monetary assistance in case of death, permanent total disability, permanent partial disability, and temporary total disability, arising out of an accident. Some plans offer education funds, up to a limit, for two children in case of the insured person’s death. Some policies offer monetary compensation for a certain period of time for loss of employment due to an accident. These benefits matter a lot to employees who may face uncertain times after an accident due no fault of their own. Yes, it may cost a bit more but the security it may provide is immeasurable.
Sum Insured
As an employer you need to decide what the sum insured per employee should be. Based on your assessment you can go for 3 Lakh, 5 Lakh, or 7 Lakh and above of sum insured for your employees. You can also customise your plans to have different levels of sum insured. For example, an entrant employee may receive a cover of 3 Lakh, a managerial level employee may get upto 5 Lakh coverage, and an administrative level member of your company can enjoy over 7 lakh as sum insured. You can create different segments like this to provide suitable coverage.
Coverage
It is essential for you to decide who gets covered by the plan. Is the plan just for the employee? Can the company cover the plan for employees and their dependent family? Can the employee be covered along with his family as well as parents? Or should the company look for a plan that has one policy that covers employee and family, and another policy that covers the parents, within the same plan? There are multiple combinations like these that you can look into and purchase because group policies allow for such detailed customisations.
Insurance Company’s Performance
There are factors like incurred claims ratio, ease of filing claims, customised corporate plans etc. that can be used to know and compare the performance/ratings of different insurance companies. Along with the cost of premiums, an employer should also be mindful of the quality of service provided by the insurer. An insurance plan is only as good as the service provided by the insurance company.
Employee’s preference
This consideration comes into picture for companies with smaller numbers of employees. In this case an employee can weigh in the preferences of the employees before making a decision so that they can buy a plan that fits their company’s employee profile perfectly.
Broadly speaking, these are the most important factors one should keep in mind before purchasing a group plan for employees with the primary intention being the financial protection of those working in your company.
OneAssure is a distribution platform that helps you make right decisions on matters where health and finances converge. Visit oneassure.in to know more about your health insurance choices.