The renewal date of the Homeprotect Healthcare Scheme with Axa Health is 1st March annually and this announcement applies to this continued health cover.
Dear Members
This year’s Homeprotect Healthcare Scheme renewal cost for your private medical insurance with Axa Health is a significant increase. This announcement is to explain the factors contributing to the increase in premiums.
This year, the scheme will experience an average premium increase of just over 70%. We understand that this is a significant adjustment, and we want to provide clarity on the reasons behind this change.
Your Board feels strongly that offering the highest quality of cover is the highest priority. This means that the Rolls-Royce of cover with Axa Health has been maintained and so still includes extra covers for therapies, cancer and mental health options in your policy.
With NHS waiting lists as lengthy as they are, with huge increases since 2020, we now see that virtually 50% of the population can wait over 3-months for treatments to even reach the assessment stage. Actual treatment to fully treat a particular health issue can even take over 12-months.
The value of the Axa Health cover offered by Homeprotect matters most when a claim is necessary and it is then that such statistics become real and affect us all at such times, so having private health insurance remains a more valuable employee benefit than ever.
We recognise that members who have included additional family members in their coverage will see this more pronounced increase in premium costs. This is due to the combined effect of the factors mentioned above and the structure of your scheme, offering amongst the highest levels of cover available today in the private healthcare sector.
Homeprotect covers the cost of individual staff members, and members are responsible for the premiums of their dependents.
In the UK today, less than 20% of the workforce benefits from their Employer paying for this valuable cover.
There are many ways to cut costs with private healthcare, such as increasing the excess payable by members from £100 to £250 per year. Alternatively, there are options to exclude treatment types, or even reduce the extent of cover for certain illnesses (e.g. therapies, cancer cover or mental health cover) and falling back on the NHS instead.
This year, it has been necessary to minimise future increases by taking some action and, whilst maintaining the highest quality of cover on the market, the Out-patient treatment options have been amended to what Axa Health call their Enhanced Cover.
Although this change limits out-patient consultations and diagnostic tests to £1,000 per person covered, per year, the existing therapies, mental health and extra cancer covers (which include state-of-the-art new treatments) are unaffected by the limit.
This positive move has retained the best quality of covers and enabled your Board to prevent an original increase in costs of over 110%, it being limited after negotiation with Axa Health to 70%.
Your Employer remains committed to providing healthcare benefits for its staff.
Your health and well-being are amongst the top priorities at Homeprotect, as it continues to work towards offering comprehensive coverage while addressing the challenges posed by rising healthcare costs.
Should you have any further queries, please contact Jeanette at jeanette@pattersonmills.com.
This special announcement ends here.
Your healthcare cover is comprehensive and of the highest quality at Homeprotect. The highlights of the cover are outlined below, but for full details of our cover you can download the Member Handbook here.
Homeprotect will cover the cost of your insurance with our Healthcare Insurance Provider, currently AXA Health. This benefit is now offered to all staff on an individual basis.
Moratorium (‘MORI’), which means that any new medical condition arising from the date you join the Homeprotect Healthcare Scheme will be covered in line with the terms and conditions of your plan.
However, any conditions experienced during the last five years including any conditions you’ve had symptoms of, even if you haven’t had treatment for them, are only covered after being a member for two continuous years and after being free from all treatment, medical advice, drugs or medicines, or special diets related to that condition for one continuous year after joining.
Your cover includes:
Cover in detail – see this page
The Scheme launched with effect from 1 October 2021.
The cost of your own individual cover is paid by Homeprotect, however this is considered a taxable benefit under HMRC rules. This means that a small tax charge, equivalent to the tax rate you pay as a percentage of the monthly premium with AXA, has to be charged within the payroll calculations.
For more information on the Taxation costs, please click here.
You can add family members at any time, however you will need to pay the cost of the cover for any additional members added. The cost of the additional members will be deducted from your net salary each month.
The costs are calculated by way of a flat multiple of your own monthly cost. Shown below is the total cost, including your own, should you add other Family Members, as follows:
By way of example, if your monthly cost is £30, Couple Cover is total of £60, Single Parent £48 and Family Cover £75.
How to Apply
Applying couldn’t be easier – simply complete the application form here, save it as a PDF and send it to Jeanette at Patterson-Mills: jeanette@pattersonmills.com
If you wish the find out the cost of adding family members before applying, please email jeanette@pattersonmills.com, quoting “Homeprotect Healthcare Scheme” as the subject.
Memberships start on the 1st of the month following your return of your application.
Specialist Services Available
All the below links are part of your Homeprotect Healthcare Scheme benefits via AXA Health, one of the most comprehensive healthcare policies available in the UK today.
AXA Menopause: The sypmtoms, self-help & treatment
Take a browse of the many benefits-hub pages to the AXA Health member website above.
Questions about your plan?
Call AXA on 0800 587 0955 (Monday to Friday 8:30am to 5:30pm)
24-hour medical help and information line
Call AXA on – 0800 003 004
When making a claim you will need your membership number, or else your full name, address and date of birth and your Group Number 7280F.
AXA Business Health Select Member Handbook
Homeprotect – BHS Presentation
AXA Health Guide to Mental Health Cover
AXA Health Homeprotect Member Application
Back to your Homeprotect Homepage
