Private Medical Insurance: Does the Latest Survey Miss the Point?

CIPD's latest survey reveals that the majority of firms do not think Private Medical Insurance plays a significant role in managing absense.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s latest survey (of 592 employers) indicates that the majority of firms do not believe Private Medical Insurance plays a significant role in managing absence, although 79% of those companies surveyed offer it to staff.

Most industry experts argue that absence management is hardly the primary reason for offering PMI as an employee benefit. They believe its main attraction is not that it is a way of reducing absence, but that it contributes to staff retention, with the employer being perceived as caring, so staff feel valued.

Elliott Hurst, Director of Health Consulting at AXA PPP, said that linking absence to PMI was ‘quite naïve,’ bearing in mind the usefulness of ‘proper’ absence management tools, such as Employee Assistance Programmes.

He said he expects the focus on employee wellbeing benefits to increase. With businesses and employees now under more pressure than ever, people are having to work harder, leading to potential health issues. In fact the CIPD survey suggests that stress is now the major cause of long term absence.

Source: Health Insurance magazine, November 2011 

For more information, contact Brunsdon at www.brunsdon.co.uk

Brunsdon LLP and Brunsdon Financial Services Ltd are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

Back to blog posts