Healthcare cash benefits provider HSA has announced that its cash plans will be made available for s...
Healthcare cash benefits provider HSA has announced that its cash plans will be made available for sale through IFAs before the end of the year, writes Ben Marquand.
David Pullen, head of sales and business development at HSA, said: 'Within the next two to three months we hope to begin making our products available to the broker market. At the moment, we are talking to three or four of the biggest IFA firms in the country, but eventually we plan to deal with more firms. We now recognise the importance of this distribution channel going forward.'
In the past, the company relied on direct sales and a tied sales force to promote its products, citing a lack of interest as to why products were not available through IFAs.
However, the continued failings of the NHS to finance every aspect of healthcare and the increasing costs of PMI have meant the costs of sickness absence are proving costly to many businesses. The latest survey from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) reported that the cost of sickness absence to UK industry is increasing rapidly and currently stands at £10.7bn per year.
HSA believes these factors mean corporate cash plans are going to become a more attractive proposition to businesses because they are much cheaper than PMI and they can provide a proportion of the costs for a range of common treatments such as dentistry, eye examinations and hospitalisation.
