Think Tank: More joined-up thinking needed to encourage take-up of benefits
Employers need to be made aware of the value holistic healthcare solutions can add to their business, according to the latest COVER Think Tank.
Discussing the importance of holistic solutions for businesses, guests at the roundtable debate agreed that employer perceptions had to change if healthcare products are to be regarded as an investment rather than a novelty.
"Many businesses buy private medical insurance as a perk, but the reality is that the cost probably manifests itself as some kind of saving for the company," said John Dean, managing director at Gissings.
Most guests concurred that the way to promote greater employee healthcare provision is to move away from the notion that medical insurance is a perk and sell holistic healthcare as a preventative step that saves money for the employer.
"In the US, males aged 45-50 routinely undergo colonoscopies to identify bowel cancer," said Bob Grindley, managing director of Healthwise. "In this country we wait for someone to get bowel cancer and then throw thousands of pounds worth of chemotherapy at it. A colonoscopy would save us the mammoth cost of cancer."
Paul Brantingham, managing director at Integra Healthcare, agreed that illustrating savings to employers is the only way forward for holistic healthcare. "The Holy Grail with these products would be to outline how much things cost and how much would be saved by introducing health benefits," he said.
Most guests maintained that demonstrating the cost of absence to employers was their best selling tool and that more work should be done to record absence, although not all were in agreement.
"What are employers going to do with the data once they have it? I've done studies where you give employers absence data and they do nothing," said Paul Roberts, strategic director, IHC Consulting.
Employees were identified as the group that will probably drive any change in benefit provision but hopes of a consumer-led drive for holistic healthcare were dashed by Philip Willcock, director of sales and marketing at Norwich Union Healthcare. "Research has shown that employees want routine screening and gym membership. They are not interested in income protection or medical insurance," he said.
nA full report of the debate is free with this issue.
