More employers are offering critical illness protection plans as a way to add financial certainty for employees, especially for people enrolled in high-deductible health plans. Approximately 35 percent of large and midsize employers now offer critical illness coverage, up from 12 percent in 2002, according to a Towers Watson survey.
“A significant medical diagnosis can be devastating for people personally and financially, often causing unexpected expenses that are not covered by medical benefits,” said Gary Harger, vice president of voluntary products, UnitedHealthcare. “Even when covered by health insurance, some people suffer a major illness that can result in significant expenses and possibly lost income due to their care. These new Critical Illness Protection plans can help supplement medical benefits and enable employees to focus on healing from their illness instead of their bills.”
Employers that offer their employees UnitedHealthcare medical plans can integrate their benefits with several ancillary products such as critical illness, accident, dental, vision and disability insurance. UnitedHealthcare’s integrated approach, called Bridge2Health, generates a wide range of data that provides a more complete profile of employees’ health and, as a result, allows for more customized interventions that can help employees reduce costs and achieve better overall health.
Research shows that adding these types of voluntary benefits to a core medical benefits offering can help improve companies’ bottom lines by increasing productivity and employee engagement. According to a 2014 report by LIMRA, a worldwide association of insurance and financial services companies, voluntary benefits can help attract and retain employees while improving morale.
“Employers and employees continue to recognize the value of voluntary benefits, with employee-paid options remaining very popular nationwide,” said Ron Neyer, MBA, CLU, ChFC, associate research director for LIMRA. “Offering robust benefit packages gives employees greater control over their health and well-being, while improving job retention and satisfaction. More than one in four private employers with at least 10 employees offers a critical illness benefit to their nonunion workforce, with that rate doubling since 2002.”
Employers offering both medical and voluntary plans from UnitedHealthcare also enjoy streamlined administration that enables a greater focus on the overall health of plan participants across all benefits offered by the company.
UnitedHealthcare’s Critical Illness Protection plans are currently available to businesses with 51 or more eligible employees in 44 states and Washington, D.C. Voluntary benefit plans are available as standalone products, as well as in addition to medical coverage.