PruHealth’s buyout of Standard Life Healthcare UK brings with it changes for both old and new customers. Some which are welcome to its customers and some which are not.
Health insurance companies are sometimes accused of not being clear in what they do and do not offer. In the past there were many stories of people making a claim only to find that they were not covered in their hour of need because of different interpretations of the ‘small print’. A new commitment from medical insurance company PruHealth means that consumers should feel more reassured.
PruHealth have announced a new “Cover Check” commitment which it says will assure that they are ‘fully transparent’ about what is covered by their private medical insurance policies. It says that they will make limits or exclusions very clear and they will also make clear where members need to make choices that will affect their levels of cover.
On 1st March Pru Health will be launching a new range of products following its purchase of Standard Life Healthcare UK. The current offerings from Standard Life and PruHealth will be phased out over the next 18 months.
Commenting on the new products, Neville Koopowitz, Pru Health, chief executive said:
‘The key challenge was to get a new offering going from day one following the merger. We treated the new product like a blank sheet of paper and embarked on extensive market research with existing clients to produce this flexible offering.’
One of the complaints of PruHealth customers is the demise of their free membership offerings. Free gym memberships was a real crowd puller and attracted much interest with individuals and the media in general.
Since the scheme’s introduction in 2006 members have seen an erosion in the gym membership offering and from this year anyone taking out a policy with them will only get 25% off their gym membership and the same applies to existing customers.
A PruHealth spokeswoman said:
‘The move to the flat rate gym discount is designed to better meet the wider needs of our customer base. The gym-goer community only represents a small minority of our customer base.
‘Our customers want lower health premiums, quality of cover and choice, rather than simply cheap gym deals.’
It will be interesting to see what PruHealth’s new offerings will be in March when their new products are launched. In the health insurance industry they have a reputation for comprehensive cover. What will differentiate them from other health insurance companies?