The economy or your health?
by Leah Gonzales

We can have no doubt that the current economic crisis and its ramifications for job security are among the most concerning issues on everyone’s minds.

As we are inundated almost on a daily basis with news of big corporations going bust, or needing bailouts, it is quite easy to forget that the biggest potential casualties are your peace of mind and health.

The times may be stressful, and have the potential to affect your employees’ health, with repercussions for their job performance. In addition, as more and more employees seek healthcare, the costs of benefits programmes can also escalate.

Your interests, our priority

As your insurance and employee benefits service provider, your financial health and your employees’ personal health are matters of the utmost concern to us. One of our key priorities is to ensure that healthcare programmes, while serving the needs of your organisation and its employees optimally, are also kept manageable from a cost perspective.

The challenge is to find an optimum balance between ensuring employee welfare and controlling costs.

As more and more employees seek healthcare, the costs of benefits programmes can escalate.

What constitutes the best cover?

An effective healthcare programme will have the following characteristics:

Comprehensive scope of cover
 

Access to the best quality insurers and hospitals
Consistency with collective labour agreement requirements
Customised to the company’s requirements
     
Cost-efficiency
 

Aggressively negotiated premiums
A variety of payment options
     
Exceptional service
 
A team of healthcare insurance experts that you can call upon
Agreed levels of response and compliance, ensured through Service Level Agreements

Claims management

While the vast majority of healthcare claims are straight forward, the insurance broker’s mediation is valuable for certain types of claims, including:
 


Declined Claims – where the employee may have had a claim wrongly denied
Ex gratia Claims – where the company may be paying unwanted claims
Problem Claims – claims involving long-term treatment or non-responsive insurers

The JLT value proposition

JLT’s in-country teams work closely with regional and London employee benefits/healthcare insurance specialists to review and customise programmes. JLT Asia has oversight of around US$50 million in healthcare premiums in the region, representing over 250,000 insured members. This volume of business and our global presence enable us to negotiate favourable terms with insurers. Our clients are from a cross-section of businesses, from banks and financial services to manufacturing, retail and hospitality.


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© 2009 Jardine Lloyd Thompson Asia. For more information, please visit us at www.jltasia.com