The cash plan sector has seen another year of steady growth, with the number of claims per employee regaining most of ground lost during the pandemic, according to data published in Corporate Adviser’s Cash and Dental Plans report.
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This is the first time that Corproate Adviser has produced a report looking specifically at the cash plan market.
The data shows that the number of employers offering cash and dental plans to staff increased by 2.9 per cent, with the total number of employees also rising. This is the fourth consecutive year the sector has expanded within the UK workplace market.
The 40-page report contains details of providers’ market share, claims ratio as well as giving a detailed breakdown of their propositions, listing the key benefits and added-value services included on different products.
For the first time it also includes in-depth qualitative research from leading advisory and consultancy firms about the current challenges and perceptions of cash plans and stand-alone dental plans in the employee benefits market, and how they would like to see these products develop in future.
The report found that Medicash now covers the highest number of employees in the UK, covering almost 400,000 employees with its corporate-paid cash plan. Its strong annual growth has seen it overtake Westfield Health, which was the largest cash plan provider in last year’s Health and Wellbeing report. However Westfield Health still provides cash plans to more employers when compared to other providers.
The report all found that Simplyhealth had the highest claims payout ratio, by a long margin, paying out 3.54 claims for each employee. The report found that the vast majority of claims, across all providers, were for dental, optical and therapy treatments – which now account for roughly three quarters of all claims made on cash plans.