BHSF has launched its Health and Wellbeing Plan, allowing customers the ability to access four apps to monitor their various aspects of their health.
“We’re changing – strategically the business is going in a different direction,” said Chris Snookes, head of product for BHSF (pictured right) at the launch in Birmingham, yesterday.
The Health and Wellbeing Plan is an extension of their cash plan, and brings on board: EQL, SkinVision, Toothfairy and Occushield.
The product has no utilisation caps
The launch in Birmingham comes after the sale last week of BHSF’s occupational health business to Optima Health for £1.4m, following its strategic business decision to concentrate on its cash plan core.
“For our existing customers, we are embarking on this programme to build value into either those existing products or to transition those clients onto our new Health and Wellbeing Plan.
“The 100% reimbursement is a market change for a large proportion of our existing book.
New customers
“For new customers coming to BHSF our new benefits will support early access to care, they support better preventative decisions around personal healthcare, and crucially they allow people to access into healthcare systems and healthcare pathways a lot sooner.
“We believe that the new Health and Wellbeing plan provides a really compelling offer.”
BHSF was founded more than 150 years ago, and has been a health cash plan provider for more than 30 years. It has a customer base of more than 5,000 client companies.
The company has a tradition of innovation, as near to its inception it was the first company to introduce the concept of an ambulance – which was a a stretcher between two bicycles.
EQL
Pete Grinbergs, co-founder and chief medical officer at EQL (pictured second left) spoke about Phio, the company’s digital pathway for self-management of MSK issues.
Phio helps users to recover from injuries by recommending specific exercises, and filters them through to a physiotherapist if needed.
Grinbergs started Phio out of concern over how long it took average MSK patients to get physio therapy compared to athletes in elite sports who get treatment on day one.
“Why does it take months and months even in the private space and certainly in the private sector?” he asked.
“There’s over a million people currently waiting for MSK treatment in the NHS” he said.
The Phio app gives immediate incident access for people who have had a problem. The app can give people exercises that they need to do immediately and direct them to a GP or AE if necessary.
The app will also monitor recovery and gives users the ability to speak to a physiotherapist at any point.
Grinbergs said that Phio had a completion rate of greater than 93%, with more than 90% of users reporting less pain within seven days.
“We have done over 600,000 assessments through our triage platform so far.”
And through its chat feature it delivers about 50,000 hours of clinical care per month.
SkinVision
Amsterdam-based SkinVision allows users to check on skin cancer by allowing them to take photos of suspicious moles and get them analysed.
The app will inform them whether it is something that is safe, something that the user should keep an eye on or something that requires a visit to the doctor.
Jack Hanley, commercial partnerships lead for SkinVision (pictured second right) said: “SkinVision’s mission is to save a quarter of a million lives over the next decade through early detection of skin cancers.”
He said: “one in five will develop skin cancer in the UK – its the most common form of cancer in the UK.
“It speaks to some of the sun seekers amongst us, and still not fantastic UK risk awareness.
“Skin cancer is the cancer that you can see, so there’s no excuse for not routinely checking your skin.
“If we catch skin cancers early, we have a 97% survival rate. That does drop to 20% when its a stage four detection.”
He noted that there is a dermatologist shortage in the UK, with only 630 registered dermatologists in the NHS.
“That’s one of the lowest per capita of any of the developed European nations.”
“NHS dermatology care is inundated with appointments and that’s causing a huge backlog and huge waiting lists in the NHS.
“We’re giving a much better chance for everybody to detect things earlier, and know when to go to a doctor.”
Occushield
Occushield allows users to check their eyesight online in a test that should take about four minutes.
Dhruvin Patel, founder of Occushield (pictured third right) said the app help to address the issue of Digital Eye Strain (DES), said the NHS was also backlogged on ophthalmology, which is one of the biggest areas where the outpatient is waiting be seen.
“Occushield is an online eye-screening solution which allows employees in four minutes to screen their eyes from a smartphone or a laptop.”
The app tests for several key vision issues, including vision, prescription changes, colour vision, depth perception, sensitivity and stigmatisms.
Patel said: “A full report is generated for that individual to tell them what to do.
“What we’re really doing here is creating behavioural change – we believe prevention is better than cure.”
“We want to educate the customer on each test and what it means for them.”
He said: “52% of sight loss and blindness is avoidable if we get people into the right care.”
Toothfairy
The mission for the Toothfairy app is to offer more affordable, accessible and available dentistry and allows users to get dental check-ups from their smartphones.
Noreen Latif, director of strategic partnerships at Toothfairy (pictured left), said: “As you may be aware, there is a dental crisis in the UK at the moment with over 35 million appointments and one million days that are missed from work.”
“Toothfairy is your pocked dentist – we are redefining how people access dental care, providing members with an affordable preventative solution when they need it.
“Members really get to understand their symptoms and the early detection of dental disease.
“We provide advice and support when you need it. Managing issues early to prevent those costly dental bills.
“If you have pain, we will be able to get you out of pain much, much sooner.”
Small increase
BHSF said the access to the app services would mean a small increase to the previous cash plan of perhaps less than 5%, but that given the greater added value and the low cost compared to private medical insurance, it did not expect any negative effect on uptake.
This is version one of the new plan, but work has already commenced on version two with the addition of other apps likely. And thought is also being given to version three
Snookes said: “We have re-systemised our entire organisation over the last 12 months as well as part of a digital transformation programme.
“We feel very passionately that we’ve got a fantastic platform in the health cash plan. “
