When Cottsway Housing Association were looking to re-vamp their benefits, brokers Aon recommended switching health insurance providers to Equipsme.
Clare Sellman, Head of Corporate Services, explains: “We had a very traditional private medical insurance plan in place, but we found that over recent years the costs had just become unsustainable, so we started looking for a different scheme that would be more affordable, but still provide us with the practical health support we needed.”
Cost-effective
“Aon recommended Equipsme to us, and it immediately sounded like what we were looking for. Because it’s backed by AXA Health it felt familiar and we knew the quality of care would still be there, but of course it’s much more cost effective. We particularly liked the fact that everyone pays the same and the risk is shared across the wider population – so it’s not claims-related or based on your organisational use, which is partly responsible for the increase we were seeing for our original premiums.”
Cottsway has almost 5,800 homes across West Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire, which range from flats and bungalows to family homes. It employs more than 170 people, from frontline property maintenance and repair staff to neighbourhood and community support officers, plus back-office staff dealing with administration services, finance and IT.
While Equipsme doesn’t offer the same level of cover as Cottsway had before, partly because it excludes cancer treatment, it does include cancer diagnosis, tests and scans to support early intervention - and it’s enabled Cottsway to introduce other benefits and rebalance their whole rewards package.
Long-term solution
Clare continues: “We didn’t want to just switch off PMI and take something away from people when we know how valuable it is. For us, it was really important that we could keep health insurance in place for the whole workforce and maintain it for the long term – and with Equipsme we feel we can do that. We were also able to give people something extra by adding in Equipsme’s Dental and Optical cover, with dental support being something our staff had been requesting for some time.
“Equipsme has actually been just one element in a much wider programme that’s seen us completely overhaul our benefits portfolio. We now have a new benefits portal which offers gym discounts, an electric vehicle leasing scheme, a cycle to work scheme plus lifestyle savings and much more. We are also giving people the opportunity to buy and sell leave, access to an employee assistance programme as well as other offers such as flu vaccinations, and eye tests – basically we are offering a rewards package that our colleagues can benefit from and that we can be proud of.”
Cover and cost
Paul Gibbon is Senior Employee Benefits Consultant at Aon. He said: “We’re seeing more and more organisations like Cottsway going back to the drawing board on benefits – often triggered by rising PMI prices. Companies are looking for a different blend of cover and cost, or are taking the opportunity to redistribute budgets and extend cover to more or all of their workforce.
“Equipsme is unique because it sits in that middle ground between PMI and cash plans. It also targets some of the main causes of sickness absence, helping people get back to work faster and helping businesses run efficiently. We’re delighted to have been able to connect Cottsway to Equipsme as part of their benefit refurbishment.”
