This article highlights why it’s important as an employer to integrate prevention and early intervention support in your overall employee benefits strategy.
Overview
According to The Health Foundation[1], 9.1 million people in England are projected to be living with major illness by 2040, an increase of 2.5 million people compared to 2019. Of this increase, 20 per cent (500,000 people) are among the working-age population (20-69 years old).
In recent years, the so called ‘war for talent’ means there has been an increased demand for good quality workers, and consequently a greater focus on retention. Private healthcare continues to be a very popular benefit, with some commercial sectors requiring this as part of their overall benefits package in order to compete.
The underlying poor health of the UK population is a key factor in the rising costs of private health insurance, with a reported 7.57 million cases (as of September 2024[2]) waiting for NHS treatment across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (amounting to 6.34 million individual patients).
These pressures on the NHS continue to fuel demand for private healthcare. Currently, 5.24 million employees benefit from health insurance through their employer. Employers are facing large year-on-year premium increases as insurers look to ensure the sustainability of their portfolios. There continued to be a sustained trend of higher premiums during 2024, with typical increases over 20%. We believe this trend will continue well into 2025 (more than double the 9% average of 2022).
Insurers have been looking at ways to reduce claims costs by providing early intervention in areas such as musculoskeletal and mental health but these potential savings have been somewhat offset by the increase in the use of virtual GP services (used nine times more via insurance than before the pandemic in 2019) and rising claims costs.
Prevention and early intervention
For employers offering private healthcare, prevention and early detection options are usually combined into the insurance policy. In their 2024 report[3], Vitality identified a direct relationship between offering interventions (such as physiotherapy and talking therapies) and a reduction in claims. Their intervention features have reduced inpatient musculoskeletal claims by 31% since 2019, and mental health inpatient claims by 69%. They also explore the notion that humans are overly optimistic regarding their health, and that health assessments such as cancer checks and blood tests identify a far greater population with undiagnosed issues than the individuals concerned believe.
Employers can establish standalone employee helplines to provide talking therapy support, or these are often incorporated into a health cash plan – a low-cost health and wellbeing policy. This requires employees to identify that they have issues and seek help. Strong ongoing communication by the employer is essential if employees are to understand what is available to them at any point.
Health cash plans can also provide easy access to online physiotherapy, as well as funding towards the cost of in-person sessions.
Employers can implement a health assessment screening programme. These range from simple home kits, online assessments, and health professional onsite days, through to full in-clinic appointments. All of these have the benefit of the early identification of health red flags.
More specifically, there are specialists who provide screening kits with the purpose of early detection of specific cancers.
Cancer Research UK[4] provides examples where almost all women with breast cancer and more than nine out of ten people with bowel cancer survive their disease for five years or more if diagnosed at the earliest stage. The World Health Organisation[5] highlights that early diagnosis of cancer provides the best possible survival opportunity, and that screening of healthy people goes further to save lives and reduce societal and economic cost.
Building the business case
The benefit to employers of implementing a preventative or early intervention strategy provides direct and indirect cost savings. However, reaching decisions regarding which intervention(s) would best support your employee demographic can be complex.
Contact your Mattioli Woods consultant or email us today if you would like help in any of the following areas:
- quantifying the business case
- establishing return on investment
- assistance in analysing your current strategy
- understanding the leading communication strategies
- analysing the best providers for your needs
2British Medical Association | NHS backlog data analysis
3Vitality | Health insurance: Claims insight report
4Cancer Research UK | Why is early cancer diagnosis important?
5World Health Organization | Promoting cancer early diagnosis
Content correct at time of writing.
