Private Health Insurance Guide

Insurers Collaborate Against Fraud

Insurers in the medical profession have united in the battle against costly insurance fraud in the medical profession.

It seems fraudulent behaviour knows no bounds as the health industry was seen as having a higher ethical code than most.  But unfortunately because of the vast pots of money involved within healthcare these days it is seen as a sitting duck waiting to be picked off. 

In January the City of London police force made movements to crack down on insurance abuse, which included health insurance cover.  There are 34 officers that now make up the Fraud Enforcement Department which are based on New Street.  This force is fully backed by the Association of British Insurers.

The cost of insurance fraud per year?  £3 billion, which adds roughly £50 to the average premium of an insurance policy.  Of the £3 billion, only a minor portion relates to medical insurance fraud.  11 years ago, AXA PPP and Aviva set up the  Health Insurance Counter Fraud Group (HICFG) which is an "industry initiative to prevent and detect fraud within health care and the insurance industry".

As well as HICFG expatriates have got in the act too.  They have set up the Global Anti Fraud Network which seeks to improve fraud in foreign climes such as the States.  It is thought that fraud adds roughly 10 per cent onto insurance premiums in America.

 

Related articles

• 20,000 plus drivers defrauded by 'ghost brokers' (money.marksandspencer.com)
• Honest 'Paying For Insurance Fraud' (confused.com)

Workplace health and office romance

A timely post over at Personnel Today - given that it's February 14th, and Saint Valentine is responsible for a good percentage of today's Royal Mail -delivered envelopes. (None through my door, unfortunately. Not yet anyway...)

The article in Personnel Today focuses on recent survey findings that indicate that relationships in the workplace are no simple matter, with some organisations banning relationships between employees who work in the same team - while others prohibit managers and subordinates from becoming involved.

However, if you're the romantic type there's maybe some encouraging news according to the article: "the most common response among employers learning of relationships between colleagues was to take no action at all."

What's your opinion - do you think management should have a policy in place for dealing with relationships in the workplace, or should workplace health and wellbeing concentrate more on helping individual employees achieve the best performance?

 

private medical insurance news

Where do you go for health insurance news?

Obviously at one time - pre-internet - you'd have to subsctibe to a specialist publication or maybe scan the pages of the FT to find out what was going on. But these days, there's a whole ot of info out there. The problem is knowing where to look. This is especially the case since we share a language with half the world and it's all too easy to stumble across what looks like industry news from these shores but is actually from further afield!

One of the most reliable sources for insurance news generally is over at insurancedaily.co.uk - they've got a very handy 'by product' filter so that if you're looking for news around one particular type of cover type - in our case private medical insurance - then you just pick it from the menu and all the latest news is displayed. VERY handy if all you need is a quick scan of the headlines and occasionally digging deeper into stories of interest.

Another place to look for insurance news is The Guardian, who have a section for insurance within the money part of their website - always worth checking out.

Although recently I have noticed that Google's news offering has been improved, enabling you to use the service almost as a kind of news hub/portal/aggregator - whatever the correct nomenclature is. And you can refine your results to pages from the UK at the click of your mouse, which is very handy indeed.

Another good way to gather information on your favourite subjects is to set up a Google (or Yahoo) news alert, and let the search engines do the work. the only slight drawback of this is that you'll need quite a specific term that you want to collect the news for - otherwise too many results will return and could clog up your inbox a little.

Health insurance at the Moneyfacts Consumer Awards

Last week at the HAC in London, the Moneyfacts Consumer Awards took place - with some of the leading personal financial services providers and utility companies scooping awards across a broad set of categories. From Remortgage Buyers' Choice to Best Current Account Provider, all the most important areas were represented with one winner for each category.

Moneyfacts' method of determining the winners for each category is as thorough as it is fair, with the comparison site surveying extensively (and sifting through half a million answers) plus carrying out independent technical product analysis - ensuring that the awards have a real basis in quality and customer satisfaction.

And the winner of Best Health Insurance Provider? AXA PPP healthcare - a private medical insurance provider who have made some news recently with their enhanced heart and cancer cover which is part of their ongoing 'heart and cancer commitment'.

 

Health care: the future

I suppose if you're styled as 'The Hospital of Silicon valley' then you'd need to be able to back it up with a whole host of dazzling tech.

Well, El Camino Hospital may not - yet - be at the stage where all diseases, ailments breakeages etc are made better with a nanosecond's laser-zap, but it still looks very interesting from this video.

Robots wandering around (actually not wandering but closely following the building's plan in order to deliver stuff as quickly as possible), ultra modern communications systems, and perhaps most futuristic sounding of all, lingustically gifted beds. An interesting video:

 

Microchip Smart Pill To Help Patients Dosages

Image via Wikipedia

A new pill that consumers are able to swallow and monitors how medication is being taken will soon be available on the open market.

The edible microchip is ingested by the consumer and it will provide details of medication programmes through a receiver patch attached to the patients arm.  The aim is to improve the way people take medication based upon doctors orders.  It is not known if it will be available to NHS patients or health insurance patients.

The system which costs around £50 per month is a drop in the ocean compared to the £400 million that is wasted each year in unused medication (athough based on personal experience the amounts dised out are way too much).

The information that can be obtained from the "pill" can monitor which drugs are taken and what dosage the patient has taken.  Also it will monitor the patients temperature and and also the heart rate.  The sensor will also alert the patient to when the next dosage is due and records whether or not the recipient is getting enough sleep or exercise.

The details can be recorded onto a smartphone or computer which will provide all the statisitcs previously mentioned and doctors can them make judgment calls based on the downloaded information.

The "patch" can be worn for up to seven days much like a electrocardiogram (ECG) which records electronic currents within the heart and will be sold in Lloyds Pharmacy as of September.

 

 

NHS Patients Meals Cost Just £1.70

Patients at some NHS trusts up and down the country are being served meals that cost just £1.70 per meal according to new published figures.

This has come on the back of growing concerns about the lack of nutrition in Britains wards.  It is thought one in ten trusts across the country spend less than £5 per day on breakfast, lunch and dinner for each of the patients in their care.

Of those it was seen that Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust spent just £2.57 per day (86p per meal).  The was by far the least amount spent per meal in the country as discovered by the NHS Information Centre.

It has become a concern for everybody concerned because patients require the maximum amount of nutrition in order to aid them getting better, especially older patients.  It is widely felt that action needs to be taken immediately in order to right some of these wrongs.

The Government has already proposed that meals with reduced salt, sugar and fat content and replace that with fruit, vegetables, fibres and oily fish to aid patients patients recovery and make sure the correct nutrients are being provided.

In addition local trusts are trying to source stock local suppliers so that the costs are still kept down but the freshness of the foods are there too.

 

The American Health Insurance Problem

The American political scene is busy at the moment with many potential presidential candidates trying to make their case for election.

High on the agenda is the health insurance issue, with Mitt Romney subtly referring to this rather contentious issue when he claimed that he “liked being able to fire people who provide services to me”.

Unfortunately this is just not an option for the large number of Americans who receive their health insurance cover through their job. Around 45% of the population receive their medical insurance through work and very few actually have a choice of provider.

Some employers provide a couple of options for staff but it’s a long way from the freedom people have in the UK when selecting a private health insurance policy. As it stands the majority of employees need to take what’s on offer when they start their job.

The issue can be traced back to the Second World War, where the tax on employee benefits was removed. This incentivises businesses to increase employee benefits packages, which has led to a continual growth of the amount spent on healthcare in the USA.

Many people change jobs frequently, and so are not tied to a single policy or insurer for long. For the sake of convenience many simply take what is provided rather than take the time to find a private policy.

 

The German Medical Insurance Problem

 

Price increases as high as 50% have numerous Germans looking at their private medical insurance plans, with a good number contemplating switching to a state health plan.

The news newspaper Der Spiegel reported that lots of medical insurance organizations increased the cost of their policies at the start of 2012, and that is the primary motivation for people to switch.

The AOK, Germany’s largest public medical insurance organisation with close to 24 million members, has announced a rise in enquiries. Several other public insurance firms have experienced an identical rise.

Germany has laws and regulations relating to health insurance, and people are typically only able to switch between public and private plans in certain circumstances.

Those who have become unemployed are permitted to change from public to private, just like individuals whose salary level drops beneath € 45,900. People transferring from self-employed employment to a full-time job that has a related salary are also granted permission to switch.

A different public health organisation, Barmer GEK, has claimed that around 27,600 folks have switched to public health insurance from private in 2011. It is a 9% increase on the number announced in the previous year. 

 

 

Londons Drinking Problem

New figures published for BBC's Inside Out London programme have revealed that there has been a sharp rise in the numbers of elderly people getting help for drinking problems.

In the London area there has been a dramatic increase of 163 per cent of elderly citizens seeking professional help for drinking issues and admissions to local hospitals.  This rise is the largest in the UK for over 65's.

The study suggests that the reason for this sharp upturn in cases is due to the amount of free time elderly citizens have, much more than their younger counterparts.  This is also despite the rest of the UK drinking less and less.

It has also been suggested that people drink to hide from the pressures of living in the capital, areas such as Hammersmith, Fulham and Camden have higher death rates due to alcohol related illnesses. 

Other reasons the elderly may turn to alcohol due to a few factors but those highlighted are boredom, loneliness, bereavment and a change of lifestyle with many of the elderly unable to cope with sudden retirement.