Empower Your Team with Business Health Insurance

Business health insurance is private medical insurance that a company arranges and pays for on behalf of its directors and employees. You may also hear it referred to as company health insurance or corporate health insurance.

The cover works much like an individual private medical insurance policy, giving those insured quicker access to services such as GP appointments, specialist consultations, diagnostic tests and private hospital treatment.

With corporate health insurance, the business takes out a policy with an insurer and pays the premiums for the directors and employees it chooses to cover.

If someone on the policy needs medical treatment, they can access eligible private healthcare through the insurer. Depending on the policy, this could include GP appointments, consultations with specialists, diagnostic tests and hospital treatment. The exact benefits, excesses and level of cover will depend on the plan selected.

Group health insurance allows a business to provide private medical insurance to a number of employees through one company policy, rather than everyone arranging their own individual cover.

Having employees insured together under a group scheme can often make premiums more competitive than comparable individual policies. It also makes administration easier, as the employer manages the insurance centrally rather than employees having separate policies.

Small business health insurance is private medical insurance designed for smaller companies. Depending on the insurer, schemes can be available for businesses wanting to cover just one or two people.

This means smaller limited companies can still provide directors and employees with access to private healthcare without needing the large workforce that people sometimes associate with company health insurance schemes.

There isn't one standard price for business health insurance. The premium will depend on factors including how many people you want to insure, their ages, the level of cover required and the excess you choose.

Adding benefits such as mental health, dental or wider outpatient cover can also increase the premium. As an example, we can often find policies without outpatient cover for around £60 a month, although the actual price will depend on the business and people being insured.

Company health insurance gives directors and employees access to private healthcare while they continue to have full access to the NHS.

Depending on the policy selected, it can provide quicker access to diagnostics, specialist appointments and private treatment. Premiums paid by the employer are usually treated as an allowable business expense for corporation tax purposes, although company-paid medical insurance is normally a taxable benefit in kind for the employee.

The exact cover depends on the insurer and policy selected, but group health insurance will typically provide access to private specialist consultations, diagnostic tests and inpatient or day-patient treatment for eligible acute medical conditions.

Additional benefits can often be included, such as mental health support, physiotherapy, dental treatment and optical cover. Because policies can differ considerably, it's important to compare the benefits and exclusions as well as the monthly premium.

The cost of small business health insurance is influenced mainly by the number and age of the people being insured and the level of cover you choose.

A business covering only one or two directors will generally have a lower overall premium than a company insuring a larger workforce, although the cost per person may be similar. Comparing insurers across the market is the best way to establish what suitable cover is likely to cost.

Corporate health insurance is generally priced according to the people being insured rather than being charged as a single fixed fee for the company.

As the number of employees covered increases, the overall cost will increase, although larger groups may sometimes benefit from more competitive rates per person. The benefits and level of cover selected can have an even greater effect on premiums, which is why comparing different insurers and policy options is important.

When a company pays for an employee's private medical insurance, HMRC will normally treat the premium as a taxable benefit in kind.

The value of the benefit is added to the employee's taxable income and tax is paid according to their marginal rate. The company will normally also pay Class 1A National Insurance. However, the premiums are usually an allowable business expense for corporation tax purposes.