Factors to consider when reviewing medical insurance for personal clients

The other night as I was falling asleep I tried to count up in my head how many personal and corporate medical insurance client reviews I've done over the last seven years since I first set up my practice.

I lost count very quickly.

Looking at my master client folders on my Mac there are over 640 files for clients and prospects and I must have done multiple reports and reviews for some of the earlier clients for whom I've now handled six or seven renewals.

Looking at one insurers whose quotes I can tally, just for individual clients their system is showing that I have keyed 1029 separate quotes onto their system. That's just personal clients where they were not the holding broker for the case and were appropriate to consider for the client.

Over the years I'll bet I've easily done between 2,000 and 2,500 individual reviews and reports for new and renewing clients.

Each one is slightly different as you might imagine but there are some basic underpinnings that sit behind the thought process when starting a review for each client :

1) What do they want/need to achieve ?

2) Is what they have/ want appropriate ?

3) Can they afford it. Is it good advice for them to have a particular plan, benefit or feature ?

4) What do they have at the moment, is it suiting their needs - is it expensive or overpriced ?

5) What is their underwriting requirement - if they're a new client what type of underwriting might be appropriate. If they have cover already have they made recent claims, can they consider a move of insurer.

6) Will an insurer accept them on switch (some insurers won't accept scheme leavers on certain types of underwriting). Some insurers will not accept certain professions e.g. doctors.

7) Can we create a plan that fulfils the clients needs and is within their budget.

For each of those 600 odd clients, over 2,500 plus reports there are a series of up to a dozen individual decisions to consider as above. That's before we even get down to the literally hundreds of plan options the 15 or so insurers I regularly use and quote have on their plans.

10,000's of choices, features, ideas and other important issues to consider over time.

Medical insurance is on of those weird products that seems on the face of it quite simple : Private treatment once you've been referred by your GP for out-patient tests, consultations and then, if required in-patient or day case treatments and follow ups.

This apparent simplicity hides the basic sometimes forgotten premise : when you're dealing with people's money and health things get complex real fast. I've been looking after medical insurance for client and professional introducers for decades now and I still learn new things every day.

If you need a review of the cover you have in place. If you'd like new cover or if you're an adviser of some kind (IFA, General Broker or Accountant) who'd like help with a client - let me know. I'm happy to provide another review for you, for free.

Let me help you through the maze of decisions.  

Phil Knight
Independent Healthcare Consultant
07792 075748
philknight@pch.uk.com