Healthcare

Vast, because the medical sector is an economic sector on its own.

It is a global ecosystem  of research institutions,  producers of drugs and medical equipment, regulators, hospitals and care centres, private and public, involving an endless number of specialties and practitioners.

Sensitive,

• Adequate healthcare protection and the possibility to rely on a good medical infrastructure is by far the main concern of your expatriates and international mobile employees

• The high frequency of healthcare claims and its financial implications are the two reasons why healthcare is consistently ranked as the number one employee benefit.

• Reliable healthcare protection is not only critical for employee satisfaction and retention, it also affects your global employer reputation.

Rapidly evolving, treatment and budget wise.

Healthcare is one of the most innovative sectors, resulting in more effective treatments but involving also a yearly medical inflation of minimum 6%.

Basic healthcare plans are intended to cover all inpatient and day-care treatments.

Comprehensive healthcare plans will also include a wide variety of additional benefits such as

• All outpatient consultations and treatments by General Practitioners and Specialists

• All prescribed drugs

• Alternative types of medicine (acupuncture; osteopathy; homeopathy; chiropractic)

• Physiotherapy

• Infertility treatment

• Dental care (routine or including also dental prosthesis, implants, periodontics and orthodontics)

• Vision and hearing.

• Consultations and aids.

Unless specified otherwise, basic and comprehensive healthcare plans cover the refund of medical expenses caused by illness and accident.

Inpatient treatments are generally fully refunded while for outpatient treatments a co-payment of 20 tot 30% is usually bourn by the insureds, in order not to stimulate medical overconsumption.

The healthcare benefit can be limited to the employees, but in most cases includes the dependants.

1.  Healthcare’s Complexity

Unlike  Life or  Disability, Healthcare is definitely a more complexe risk and benefit. A “healthcare group policy” and its associated “employee benefit guide”  are extensive documents.

Due to our specific experience and expertise we provide independent and valuable advice regarding the scope and limitations of healthcare plans in place.

2.  Limited Employer Visibility

The claim’s notification, its assessment and its settlement is a process which takes place between insurer and insured employee, without any employer’s involvement due to GDPR compliance.

Whether spontaneously or on explicit request of the employer, insurers of Healthcare Group Policies are to issue annual claims’ statistics.

In case your company would not be aware whether its healthcare plan is to be considered as a “book rated” or as an “experience rated” group policy, we can inform you about the currently prevailing criteria and implications.   

3.  Unpredictable Renewals

Unlike for Life and Disability, Healthcare renewals often bring unexpected premium adjustments which are extremely difficult to evaluate for an employer. Insurers rarely divulge the triggering effect of different loss ratio’s and the corresponding premium adjustments.