If like me you've been a user of the Mac OS Email client for years you'll probably be as frustrated as I have been with it's idiosyncrasies and slow-downs. After 12 months of working like a snail and then more recently three days where it took 20 minutes or longer to load an e-mail, type and send it I have finally given up and moved over to Spark.
Two minutes to download from the App Store and then about five to configure the two accounts (business and personal) I need to use on a regular basis and I'm good to go.
Will no doubt come across issues - wondering whether my automator emails which I use multiple times a day in my standard workflow will operate but even if they don't it's taking so long to process one email out that I'd be quicker typing the things all from scratch anyway.
Here's to, hopefully working at normal speed again !
Thursday 29 November 2018
Wednesday 28 November 2018
Working with small corporate clients on quotations
If you're an IFA or accountant who is interested in passing medical insurance clients over to a specialist healthcare broker like myself what are the key pieces of information you need to collate from your client to pass on to enable me to begin the review and organise some figures and an initial report ?
For brand new company clients who currently have no medical insurance plan in place I just the following :
Name and address of the company, ideally this must match their appearance on the DTI Companies House website as many insurers now check that companies are legitimate corporate entities.
We will also need a list of staff including their ages/date of birth along with the same for dependents (although it is easy enough to price without family members and amend later which happens quite often). All staff to be covered will be paid in full by the company which results in a P11D 'benefit in kind' charge for the premium - this is part of the eligibility criteria implemented by HMRC for businesses to obtain the generally lower price and tax advantages of company paid medical insurance.
As with new personal client reports I tend not to take an in-depth overview of benefit requirements from the client at quotation stage preferring to offer a range of options in my report for us to drill down with the client at a later meeting/call.
In the next post I'll cover off the same informational breakdown for company clients with an existing plan already in place.
If you are a business professional who think their clients might need advice on any aspect of medical insurance or other related plans please feel free to contact me on :
philknight@pch.uk.com or 07792 075748
Phil Knight
Independent Healthcare Consultant
November 2018
For brand new company clients who currently have no medical insurance plan in place I just the following :
Name and address of the company, ideally this must match their appearance on the DTI Companies House website as many insurers now check that companies are legitimate corporate entities.
We will also need a list of staff including their ages/date of birth along with the same for dependents (although it is easy enough to price without family members and amend later which happens quite often). All staff to be covered will be paid in full by the company which results in a P11D 'benefit in kind' charge for the premium - this is part of the eligibility criteria implemented by HMRC for businesses to obtain the generally lower price and tax advantages of company paid medical insurance.
As with new personal client reports I tend not to take an in-depth overview of benefit requirements from the client at quotation stage preferring to offer a range of options in my report for us to drill down with the client at a later meeting/call.
In the next post I'll cover off the same informational breakdown for company clients with an existing plan already in place.
If you are a business professional who think their clients might need advice on any aspect of medical insurance or other related plans please feel free to contact me on :
philknight@pch.uk.com or 07792 075748
Phil Knight
Independent Healthcare Consultant
November 2018
Tuesday 27 November 2018
Data for an continued medical exclusions transfer
If you're an IFA or accountant who is interested in passing medical insurance clients over to a specialist healthcare broker like myself what are the key pieces of information you need to collate from your client to pass on to enable me to begin the review and organise some figures and an initial report ?
For brand personal clients who currently have a medical insurance plan in place I just need to know who is to be covered, how old they are and where they live. So names, dates of birth and home address for everyone to be covered.
In addition, as I will be undertaking a comparative market review I'll need full information on the current plan. The insurer, product name, excess and other plan options taken, the renewal date and current/renewal premium. This is to ensure that when pricing we look at offering like for like comparisons to establish that the clients needs can continue to be met by the product and hospital listing of a prospective new insurer.
Lastly and in some cases most importantly I will also ask the client for an overview of claims going back a minimum of five years and any pending medical medical issues they are aware of. Switching existing clients between insurers without negatively impacting on their medical underwriting is a complex and technical element of the review and thorough fact-finding is vital. Claims in the past, depending on when they happened and their nature do not necessarily preclude moving a client to a new insurer but they might limit the options we can consider and almost certainly affect the pricing we offer.
In the next post I'll cover off the same breakdowns for company clients with no plan already place.
For brand personal clients who currently have a medical insurance plan in place I just need to know who is to be covered, how old they are and where they live. So names, dates of birth and home address for everyone to be covered.
In addition, as I will be undertaking a comparative market review I'll need full information on the current plan. The insurer, product name, excess and other plan options taken, the renewal date and current/renewal premium. This is to ensure that when pricing we look at offering like for like comparisons to establish that the clients needs can continue to be met by the product and hospital listing of a prospective new insurer.
Lastly and in some cases most importantly I will also ask the client for an overview of claims going back a minimum of five years and any pending medical medical issues they are aware of. Switching existing clients between insurers without negatively impacting on their medical underwriting is a complex and technical element of the review and thorough fact-finding is vital. Claims in the past, depending on when they happened and their nature do not necessarily preclude moving a client to a new insurer but they might limit the options we can consider and almost certainly affect the pricing we offer.
In the next post I'll cover off the same breakdowns for company clients with no plan already place.
Monday 26 November 2018
Good to be back blogging again
If you're an IFA or accountant who is interested in passing medical insurance clients over to a specialist broker like myself what are the key pieces of information you need to collate to pass on to enable me to begin the review and organise some figures and an initial report ?
For brand new personal clients who currently do not have cover in place it is a relatively easy set of data that is required. Basically I just need to know who is to be covered, how old they are and where they live. So names, dates of birth and home address for everyone to be covered. That's basically it.
Some intermediaries might also ask a client what level of cover they require and which hospital they would prefer to use. My standard quotation and report process is a little more open ended. For new clients, unless they have a specific initial expectation, is to offer a range of benefits, excess levels and prices form a number of insurers (usually between four and seven providers) to give us a number of options to discuss. I find this methodology, whilst sometimes involving a little more work for me gives context and a good reason to explain how PMI plans work and the benefits of various plan options and the ideas and practicalities that sit behind them. It also means the initial telephone fact find with the client or the introducer is simpler and the initial report gets to the client more quickly.
Tomorrow I'll cover off the same breakdown for personal clients with a plan already in existence, sometimes called 'switch' or 'continued personal exclusions' (CME) transfers. Then in follow up posts I'll talk about similar information for company paid clients.
For brand new personal clients who currently do not have cover in place it is a relatively easy set of data that is required. Basically I just need to know who is to be covered, how old they are and where they live. So names, dates of birth and home address for everyone to be covered. That's basically it.
Some intermediaries might also ask a client what level of cover they require and which hospital they would prefer to use. My standard quotation and report process is a little more open ended. For new clients, unless they have a specific initial expectation, is to offer a range of benefits, excess levels and prices form a number of insurers (usually between four and seven providers) to give us a number of options to discuss. I find this methodology, whilst sometimes involving a little more work for me gives context and a good reason to explain how PMI plans work and the benefits of various plan options and the ideas and practicalities that sit behind them. It also means the initial telephone fact find with the client or the introducer is simpler and the initial report gets to the client more quickly.
Tomorrow I'll cover off the same breakdown for personal clients with a plan already in existence, sometimes called 'switch' or 'continued personal exclusions' (CME) transfers. Then in follow up posts I'll talk about similar information for company paid clients.
Friday 23 November 2018
The importance of reviewing your medical insurance at least every other year
I'm just beginning looking at the mid December 2018 renewal terms for one of my clients.
The premium last year went from £ 489 per annum to £ 559 p.a. for a mid range policy with Aviva.
Last year I thought this increase was not unreasonable (equating to £ 5.83 per month) but I did a market review anyway as I often do for clients. There were lower costs with other insurers but not low enough to make it worthwhile moving insurer so the client and I elected to renew as is with Aviva. The insurer offered a small discount and everyone was happy.
This year the renewal terms have arrived in at £ 783 per annum - we will have to renew the market again and this time assuming no pending claims then I will almost certainly recommend a move as I can think of at least two insurers who on a clean switch case like this one will offer considerably lower terms than the holding insurer.
The morale to this story is two fold - firstly never ever leave your insurance to auto-renew, contact an expert intermediary and review things. Even if leaving things as they are is the right advice at least you can have some context on how your plan compares with market. Secondly, pricing and insurers approaches to taking on new clients changes in my market quite quickly - there are options available now that were not available only 12 months ago so it is always worth checking in a renewal time.
For help, contact me on 07792 075748 or philknight@pch.uk.com
I look after personal medical insurance (primarily high net worth clients but I will NEVER turn anyone away even if you just want a natter about your options), company cover 2 - 20,000 employees and various associated covers : optical, dental, cash plan, EAP, Sickness Absence - your one stop shop for professional healthcare consultancy
Phil Knight
November 2018
The premium last year went from £ 489 per annum to £ 559 p.a. for a mid range policy with Aviva.
Last year I thought this increase was not unreasonable (equating to £ 5.83 per month) but I did a market review anyway as I often do for clients. There were lower costs with other insurers but not low enough to make it worthwhile moving insurer so the client and I elected to renew as is with Aviva. The insurer offered a small discount and everyone was happy.
This year the renewal terms have arrived in at £ 783 per annum - we will have to renew the market again and this time assuming no pending claims then I will almost certainly recommend a move as I can think of at least two insurers who on a clean switch case like this one will offer considerably lower terms than the holding insurer.
The morale to this story is two fold - firstly never ever leave your insurance to auto-renew, contact an expert intermediary and review things. Even if leaving things as they are is the right advice at least you can have some context on how your plan compares with market. Secondly, pricing and insurers approaches to taking on new clients changes in my market quite quickly - there are options available now that were not available only 12 months ago so it is always worth checking in a renewal time.
For help, contact me on 07792 075748 or philknight@pch.uk.com
I look after personal medical insurance (primarily high net worth clients but I will NEVER turn anyone away even if you just want a natter about your options), company cover 2 - 20,000 employees and various associated covers : optical, dental, cash plan, EAP, Sickness Absence - your one stop shop for professional healthcare consultancy
Phil Knight
November 2018
The Problem with GDPR - 1) Inconsistency
Hands up anyone who understands how GDPR is supposed to work ? Not even the lawyers can do that because they know that GDPR exists, amongst other reasons, to keep them in work with it's ambiguities and inconsistency.
For anyone, business or customer those four letters have become some of the most annoying in recent history. Let me give you an example of the inconsistency of GDPR in operation.
Two weeks ago I needed to book in a medical scan for a family member - the hospital had my number and called me to arrange it on their behalf. This was agreed at the hospital with their radiology team. The call to diary in the test came to my mobile and they asked to speak to the patient - my family member. I explained as above, we'd agreed I would organise it as I'm taking the person to the appointment and have a note from their diary of when they are available - all agreed with me in one call, appointment booked. No problem.
One week later exactly. The results meant another follow up scan was needed in two months time. The procedure was agreed with the same people in the same hospital to do the same thing as noted above to book in the new visit.
The call came in to my mobile and they asked to speak to the patient. I said, "Oh the scan people - I'll book in the appointment as I'm bringing the person and have their diary."
"No, can I speak to the patient" I said "Why" - guess what the answer was : GDPR.
I tried to make the point that GDPR hadn't applied seven days earlier in EXACTLY the same circumstances especially considering that the only personal information they divulged was the name of the patient which I had already. Totally bonkers. They wouldn't let me book the scan and therefore they had to call back again to my family member directly who of course couldn't book in the visit as they didn't have my diary - the person who was organising the transport.
Ludicrous on two levels - the inconsistency within the same department in the same hospital and the fact that despite no personal medical information being involved they've made it functionally impossible for someone who can't organise their own transport/needs to be accompanied by a family member to make an appointment. Lunacy.
For anyone, business or customer those four letters have become some of the most annoying in recent history. Let me give you an example of the inconsistency of GDPR in operation.
Two weeks ago I needed to book in a medical scan for a family member - the hospital had my number and called me to arrange it on their behalf. This was agreed at the hospital with their radiology team. The call to diary in the test came to my mobile and they asked to speak to the patient - my family member. I explained as above, we'd agreed I would organise it as I'm taking the person to the appointment and have a note from their diary of when they are available - all agreed with me in one call, appointment booked. No problem.
One week later exactly. The results meant another follow up scan was needed in two months time. The procedure was agreed with the same people in the same hospital to do the same thing as noted above to book in the new visit.
The call came in to my mobile and they asked to speak to the patient. I said, "Oh the scan people - I'll book in the appointment as I'm bringing the person and have their diary."
"No, can I speak to the patient" I said "Why" - guess what the answer was : GDPR.
I tried to make the point that GDPR hadn't applied seven days earlier in EXACTLY the same circumstances especially considering that the only personal information they divulged was the name of the patient which I had already. Totally bonkers. They wouldn't let me book the scan and therefore they had to call back again to my family member directly who of course couldn't book in the visit as they didn't have my diary - the person who was organising the transport.
Ludicrous on two levels - the inconsistency within the same department in the same hospital and the fact that despite no personal medical information being involved they've made it functionally impossible for someone who can't organise their own transport/needs to be accompanied by a family member to make an appointment. Lunacy.
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