For an average human being, investment and insurance might strike as two ends of a pole. But not for your typical Human Resource Manager. An intelligent Human Resource Manager knows that he has to indeed invest in a group health insurance plan. Especially if he intends to attract and retain talent.
As Gen Z starts populating corridors, LLMs become a buzzword in HR circles, let’s explore why an investment in a Group Health Insurance policy might prove to be one of the wisest arrows in your quiver.
For the uninitiated, a group health insurance policy helps you cover the hospitalization risk of your employees, in sickness and in health. The policy can not only cover hospitalization expenses of the employees, but is rapidly evolving as a comprehensive wellness option for managers. The wellness bit ensures lesser sick days and increased productivity. A win win for all the stakeholders.
What’s on this page?
Key Benefits of Group Health Insurance
A tool in the Recruitment & Engagement Managers arsenal
Covid was a landmark event in the HR Managers dictionary. It not only redefined the way work was done, but also where it was done from. Today, teams are virtual, hierarchical and complex. You might have a team member working from Guwahati and another one from Calicut, while you are managing them from Mumbai. The advent of LLMs is ensuring routine and mundane tasks are taken care by the machines. Which leaves you with people with above average skills. But, and here is the tricky part, all of the Recruitment managers are competing for the same set of talent. How then, do you differentiate yourself from the rest of them? Why not customize an insurance policy that could pay for sessions with a psychiatrist and offer it as an Employee Benefit. Interesting, right? How do you engage these folks? By bringing them together over an activity that is not related to work, something that allows them to form social connections. But can your insurance policy do that? Even if your Insurance Service Provider might not, your Insurance Broker can.
Day 1 coverage for everything and everyone
India is largely a collectivist society. We tend to largely value family over personal goals. In such a scenario, do you think people might not switch jobs to companies that offer Day 1 coverage for all ailments including coverage for parents? Medical inflation in the country hovers around 15% per annum. Health premiums for senior citizens are through the roof. Smart HR folks look at the cost of premiums for a parental policy as an investment on the employee. Now imagine another scenario – a guy is looking to get married. He has offers from two employers, one of whom is offering a Day 1 cover for maternity. Which employer would the guy choose?
Increased sense of protection for families
Again, not being an individualistic society, families tend to mean a lot to us, as they rightly should. By providing a group health cover for the employees family, the employer tends to get a seat at the dinner table. He is now invested in the health of the family. He is now a protector of the family. And this is reciprocated in the work relationship of the employee. He not only has fewer sick days but is also more productive in the days he works.
The power to negotiate
Health insurance is called a bleeding portfolio because of the kinds of losses incurred on such policies. Given an option, Insurers would not want to underwrite the health insurance policies, altogether. But if you also have a parallel asset and liability policy, these can be used as a carrot to underwrite a group health insurance policy that is beneficial for you. Asset policies can be used as a lever that can be used to subtely strong-arm the insurer. With the help of the right insurance broker, you can use the group health insurance as a tool to maximize the value you can offer to your employees while minimizing costs.
Claims support
You cannot deny hospitalization of your employees; they are bound to fall sick and need hospitalization. But what you can definitely avoid, is the mental agony that they have to go through during the process. A lot of this mental agony stems from the delays and denials of the claims process. With a group health insurance, you will generally have the option of choosing the TPA under the policy. Even when you do not, your insurance broker should take care of all of the claims processes so that your head aches to a minimum.
Ethika has, over the years, mastered the science of claim settlement. This is evident from our 4.9+ rating on google.
Customization
One of the best features of a group health insurance policy is your ability to choose the coverages you want.
Need a maternity cover, ✅
Need a pre-existing disease cover from day one, ✅
Need to cover different employees for different sum insured ✅
You get to choose the coverages and the extent of the coverages you want. The premiums ofcourse can vary, but with the help of the right insurance broker, you should be able to keep costs at an optimum.
Employee Assistance Programs
As workplaces evolve, they also start getting more complex and complicated. Your employees end up spending more time with work. This essentially also means that they might have lesser time to fulfill their familial obligations. And during all of this, your employee might feel stressed, at times he might need mental counselling, at other times he might need financial or legal counseling. Don’t you think it is immoral to let him fight that battle alone? Yes, right. Employee Assistance Programs are today a rage. Typical programs include counseling that can help your employee deal with personal and/ or professional issues. Ethika’s EAP are quite a rage amongst its clients employees. We have had clients who cannot get out of their group mediclaim programs because of global mandates and still opt for Ethika’s EAP.
Tax Advantages
Nothing in life is certain, except for death and taxes is a famous quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin. And if you are a Corporate setup. God save you. We understand the pain. The cost of doing business in India is also higher as compared to some of the other developing economies. And while there is not much you can do about it, the one place where you can save a little bit of taxes, is your group health policies.
Health checks
As our systems evolve, we are slowly but steadily moving towards preventive care. Insurers also realize the fact that catching an illnesses’ symptoms early, could at most times, mean that it can be cured. This way, not only does the Insurer save monies on treatments that could have proven costly, but also gathers goodwill by virtue of acting as someone who helped with the diagnosis of the illness. A good insurance broker should be able to get you a good health check into your policy. The broker might also have similar programs that you could look at. Health checks not only keep the health of your senior employees in check, but can act as an effective risk mitigation tool for all the employees. This in turn contributes to lesser man-days loss.
Wellness
As we transition into a country that values preventive checks as opposed to curative ones, wellness starts occupying centre-stage. The workforce that has slowly started populating offices, Gen Z, places huge importance on wellness at workplaces. Considering the fact that this is the set of population that would soon be the most productive one at the workplace, keeping their interests in mind seems to be a necessity. Recent incidents in the corporate world have also brought a lot of focus towards preempting stresses at workplace, thereby ensuring wellness of employees. Employee wellness is a vast canvass and could include areas like lifestyle management, mental health resource, workplace ergonomics, to name a few. While Insurers have slowly started offering wellness programs, your insurance broker might be able to offer a hoard of programs that could be tailored to your necessity.
Conclusion
A group health insurance program, today is no longer a fringe benefit that, a select few corporates offer. It is a necessity. So much so that some employers tend to add the cost of the individual premiums to the employees cost. The morality of such practises aside, the point remains that a group health insurance is not just an option, anymore. It is a necessity. The all pervasive nature of group health insurance policies in the world is a sign of its growing importance. The questions you need to ask yourself are that – how do I make the best out of it and who can help tailor this product for me, so that it turns out to be my best investment.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What’s the difference between group and individual health insurance? Group plans (for employees) usually have lower premiums, guaranteed acceptance, and better pre-existing condition coverage than individual plans.
- Why offer group health insurance if salaries are competitive? Benefits like health insurance are crucial for attracting and retaining top talent, boosting morale, and reducing absenteeism.
- How does group health insurance reduce employee turnover? Strong benefits packages show employees they’re valued, increasing loyalty and making them less likely to leave.
- What does an insurance broker do for group health insurance? Brokers help businesses find the best plans, negotiate rates, handle claims, and customize coverage.
- Are there tax benefits to offering group health insurance? Yes, employer-paid premiums are often tax-deductible as a business expense.
