Caring about your employees’ health is always on the cards for every organization. After all, a healthy employee is a happy employee. And happy employees result in higher productivity and maintaining a better culture within the organization. It sounds so beneficial, isn’t it? Plus, group health insurance is beneficial for both employers and employees.
Let’s explore the topic a little more, and learn about how it benefits the organizations and employees, the various plans, and the different terms and conditions.
What Is Group Health Insurance Policy?
Quoting from the web, ‘A Group Health Insurance policy is a type of health insurance plan that covers all employees who work under the same organization. This is often offered as a valuable benefit for employees as the premium for the same is borne by the employer. The group medical insurance can be extended to the family members of the employees in some cases. This insurance plan is also referred to as corporate health insurance or employee health insurance.’
In essence, group health insurance is all about caring for the health of your employees and their family members.
Apart from the fact that it is now mandatory to provide GHI, why is it so necessary to provide this to your employees? What does a typical group health plan cover? Let’s learn more.
What Does Group Health Insurance Cover?
Now that you’re aware of the benefits of group health insurance, let’s see what a typical plan will cover.
- COVID-19 cover - Keeping the current situation in mind, you get cover if you or someone in your family tests positive for the virus. A group mediclaim policy covers hospitalization expenses.
- Pre and post hospitalization - Some illnesses require hospitalization. In such an event, your group health plan can be a saviour. Your policy covers pre-hospitalization instances like lab tests and post hospitalization charges like check-ups.
- In-patient and out-patient treatment - With group health insurance, whether you’re an in-patient or just in for OPD treatment, you have cover for a number of things like room rent, ambulance charge, and more.
- Maternity cover - With your corporate mediclaim plan, you can claim for cesarean or normal delivery, including newborn baby expenses.
- Coverage for pre-existing illness - Unlike individual health plans that come with a waiting period, in group plans, you can make a claim for pre-existing illnesses from day 1.
- No waiting period - Speaking of waiting period, group health plans waive of waiting periods. So you can make use of your policy literally from the moment it’s active.
What Are The Benefits Of Group Health Insurance Plans?
To understand the benefits of group health insurance plans, let’s take a real-life incident and dissect it further. (Names have been changed to respect privacy)
Rohit was working with a multinational company called ACME Pvt. Ltd (HQ in Germany) as a senior marketing manager. Over and above his salary of 9 lakhs per annum, ACME gave employees and their respective families group health insurance with a coverage of up to 10 lakh rupees. He never once used the coverage provided to him during his 4 year tenure.
In the month of January, he got an offer from MAC Pvt. Ltd to head their marketing efforts with a whopping package of 15 LPA. Their health benefits were different as compared to ACME, offering an employee-only coverage of 5 lakhs. Nonetheless, he decided to accept this offer.
Unfortunately, in March, Rohit’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. After a rigorous line-of-treatment that went on for 6 months, sadly she passed away. The cost for the treatment went up to 13 lakh rupees. Paid out from Rohit’s savings since MAC didn’t provide a health benefit plan that covers his family.
Even if they did, their cap of 5 lakhs would’ve still required Rohit to reach deep into his savings and pay the remaining 8 lakhs. Today, Rohit regrets leaving ACME and praises their people-centric health policy.
Learnings:
Employees value good health benefits. Sometimes even more than their CTC. It boils down to just how the HR communicates the benefits to them. Stories such as Rohit’s are quite common and employees are well aware of it.
Employees with corporate health insurance can also get various benefits like maternity care and no waiting period for covering pre-existing conditions. Good health benefits help retain these valuable talents across departments.
Some of you might think that ACME really dodged a bullet there. The claim amount must have increased their premium in the next year. It’s partially true in this case but the severity of every case differs.
On an average, more than 60% of the total claims arise from easily preventable illnesses like cold, cough, fever, etc. If you manage to address them early-on, then you can focus on these bigger unpreventable claims.
Currently, there are players in the market that bundle preventive care services for free with group health insurance, like Loop Health. Partnering up with players like us will help you get budget-friendly, engaging and efficient health benefits and medical expenses, irrespective of your organizations’ financial situation.
After all, it is necessary for organizations to invest in group coverage health insurance. So why not make the best of it and really make your health benefits work in favor of you, your work, your family and the organization.
Companies offering group mediclaim insurance to their employees can also receive tax benefits under several sections of the Income Tax Department. Sign up with us here to avail the tax benefits for group medical insurance.
Make The Right Choice
To get the most out of your group health insurance, apart from choosing a beneficial plan, you also need to pick the right insurer.
With the right provider, your benefits will double. Take Loop for instance, we offer you customizable plans based on your needs, budget, and coverage. Over and above that, we also offer added health and wellness benefits. This includes mental health consults, fitness classes, nutrition sessions, and a whole more. This way, you can ensure your employees actively engage with the group health plan, resulting in healthier, happier and more productive employees.
If you’re interested in boosting your bottom line, group health insurance is the key. Talk to us to learn more.
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