Simplyhealth has launched a health plan for the corporate market which uses national treatment networks and patient pathways created by the provider.
The firm has also changed its GP service operator to HealthHero, this was previously provided by Square Health.
Simplyhealth confirmed at launch, the Health Plan will operate on a pay and claim back basis for the funding of benefits, dental, optical and musculoskeletal. And in 2025, it will introduce direct settlement within its optical network, enhancing the patient experience for those claims.
A launch date has also not been announced for the new product.
To facilitate this access, Singh-Jones said Simplyhealth is creating networks at a national level across dental, optical, primary care and mental health services and would use patient pathways to get people treated.
This has involved an investment last year in diagnostics company Scan.com to enable customers to access an imaging scan without the need for a consultant or GP referral, Singh-Jones added.
But Simplyhealth has also launched discounted physiotherapy and has just introduced digital and triage self-management service called Phio available in apps and portals.
Looking ahead, Singh-Jones revealed the provider is about to launch a blood diagnostics solution with a partnership that will provide discounted blood tests to members across the country as well as access to a network of opticians across the UK where any member can gain access to a 20% discount at over 1,200 opticians across the UK.
Men’s health and women’s health pathways are set to follow later this year, while the provider is also developing discounting dermatologist services and working on pathways and solutions enabling members to get rapid access to dentists at a discounted price, Singh-Jones said.
Delegates also learned brokers will benefit from a new quoting system enabling them to generate client quotes more flexibly opting in and out of some services while the provider has also been deploying safe generative artificial intelligence (AI) with partner Salesforce to respond to some customer queries.
Creating an ecosystem
At a launch event, the firm said the plan addresses the top causes of sickness absence; mental health and musculoskeletal (MSK) issues alongside virtual GP access, eye-care, dentistry, diagnostics and men and women’s health services.
Head of commercial products Marc Singh-Jones told guests Simplyhealth is creating an ecosystem enabling customers to gain access to relevant services on a national scale.
Explaining the firm’s evolution from cash plan to health plan, Claudia Nicholls, chief customer officer at Simplyhealth, maintained that while private medical insurance tends to serve the privileged top layer of society, the traditional cash plan can prove problematic.
“You have the traditional cash plan which is more democratic and affordable but is slightly more problematic in our view because it only addresses that single problem of funding of healthcare not the new and emerging problems that we feel we’ve got a responsibility to contribute to,” Nicholls continued.
“What we believe is happening is that it’s almost like a non-differentiated race to the bottom where if everyone offers the same and if you’re selling on a benefits table and you’re taking more and more of the cost out, then the customer experience is not going to be great. And we think that’s wrong. Customers are at the heart of everything we do.”
Workers quitting due to back pain
The plan’s launch coincides with release of a Simplyhealth survey of 4,000 UK adults showing 27% of workers reported experiencing back pain, with 29% of those having considered quitting their jobs as a result, while almost seven in 10 (68%) of workers reported suffering from wider health problems at work.
The findings also revealed that a total of almost 19 million days were taken off for physical health problems alone, with more than eight million days taken for back pain, almost six million for dental issues and 4.5 million for eye health.
One in four (25%) workers who have experienced a health problem said their workplace was not supportive in managing their pain.
Three in 10 UK workers (27%) said they had experienced back pain at work in the last year, while one in seven (16%) had experienced muscle pain excluding back pain as a result of work.
Two-fifths (42%) of employees said not having access to physiotherapy support through their workplace had contributed to back pain issues while a fifth said access to physiotherapy would make them happier (20%) and more productive (17%).
While seven in 10 respondents said they thought employee health-support schemes should be offered by every employer, more than a third (36%) of employers fail to offer health schemes such as a health plan, employee assistance programmes, or private medical insurance.
The findings also showed employees want help with finding and accessing counselling, with nearly two-thirds (61%) of workers who have experienced challenges with their mental health saying they would like their manager to be able to direct them to mental health support.
A quarter of workers (24%) said access to counselling would make them happier and a fifth (21%) said it would make them more productive.
Around half (46%) of managers have not had any training to support employees around health problems, while 39% of managers don’t know how to signpost people they manage to health services or benefits offered by their company.
Nicholls said: “We all need to do more to support people to stay well at work, particularly when getting access to healthcare remains a key issue for many. We are seeing record numbers of workers on long-term sick leave and billions lost to the economy through sick days each year.
“Simplyhealth is here to give businesses the tools they need to help employees take a more proactive and preventative approach to their health.
“These new findings also demonstrate that every industry has different health concerns. A one-size-fits-all solution is no longer appropriate. Whatever the sector, employers need the right services to keep their employees healthy, happy and productive – which is exactly what Health Plan helps them to do.”