Bupa's controversial open referral policy has provoked many of its corporate clients to leave the provider, rival Healix claims.
The healthcare trust provider said the policy, where GPs leave the name of the consultant to which they are referring the patient open for Bupa to decide, has resulted in the insurer losing "the largest number of corporate clients this year it ever has".
However, Bupa said the system was not mandatory and that clients could use traditional referral routes if they preferred - and said claims about client losses were wrong.
Healix sales director Richard Saunders said open referral had not been well received by all the provider's clients and that some had switched to trusts.
"Bupa has lost the largest number of corporate clients this year it ever has and it's the same sort of clients," he said.
"We've taken on nine clients from Bupa's fully insured books this year because they didn't want the open referral, they didn't want the restriction of being told what consultant to go to.
"The clients who like to have Bupa, they want the name and whatever Bupa does they just want the provision. But high net worth clients who are quite well paid and use medical consultants in the City, Bupa then says: ‘You can't see that consultant' - in their view they think ‘I'm paying you thousands of pounds and you're telling me I can't see a consultant?'
"It's not all clients - some are very happy for Bupa to guide them - but it's the ones who are very intuitive who are unhappy.
"It's called open referral but they are telling us its really closed referral," he added.
He also noted that if any of the firm's own clients were unsure of where they would like to go for treatment, Healix would offer three options related to where the patient lived or worked.
Other insurers do operate open referral practices, but Bupa was the only one mentioned by Saunders.
However, Bupa disputed that the majority of its clients were unhappy with the open referral system, although it did not deny Saunders' claims about losing clients to Healix.
Bupa Health and Wellbeing sales and marketing director Tony Wood said: "Our open referrals process has been well received and over eight out of ten corporate clients now choose this approach at renewal.
"Open referral is not mandatory and clients can choose to use traditional referral routes if they believe this is right for them. However, the vast majority of new and existing clients recognise the benefits and have chosen open referral for their employees."
The insurer's open referral process provides employees with a choice of two to three consultants which Bupa claimed gave people more choice than being referred to a single consultant by a GP.
"It also enables us to guarantee that their consultants' costs will be covered in full and there will be no surprise shortfalls," Wood continued.
"These consultants have an excellent record of treating Bupa members and provide high quality care and value for our clients and their employees. However, if a GP feels that their patient should see a particular consultant, we are happy to discuss this - although our experience has shown that this happens very rarely.
"We work very closely with all our clients to ensure we are offering the right solution for their needs and that the terms we offer are sustainable. Those clients who have not chosen open referral remain very interested in working with us to provide high quality, affordable healthcare for their employees," he added.
