The Shift from Traditional to Comprehensive Offerings
Health insurance turned out to be the ultimate necessity during the post-COVID times. Even though employers did offer group health insurance to their policies earlier during the COVID pandemic, the need and importance of it now is not just a formality. Apart from offering plain vanilla group health insurance, employers are now taking efforts to provide more need-based plans. We list down a few GMC features that you as an employer should consider offering your employees to increase productivity, foster loyalty, and boost goodwill.
Top GMC Features to Consider
We list down a few GMC features that you as an employer should consider offering your employees to increase productivity, foster loyalty, and boost goodwill.
Sum Insured
Being insured is important, but getting oneself adequately insured is no less important. Employers offering group insurance policies should always consider this GMC feature. Adequate coverage needs to be kept in mind based on the rising medical inflation.
Apart from this, location also plays a crucial role in determining this amount. For example, if an organization is situated in a metro city, a sum insured of Rs 2 lakhs may be inadequate. Thus, the higher the sum insured, the better.
Flexibility
This is one GMC feature which should never be ignored. Ensure that your group health insurance plan gives a certain level of flexibility to both, the employer and the employee. For employees, the plan should help add dependents or change their contribution to the premium if they opt for any top-up.
Likewise, the employer should have the flexibility to customize the plan in terms of adding a rider. For example, an employer dealing with third-party logistics might be looking for additional accident cover for his employees.
Technology
Technology can aid in better customer support and faster and hassle-free procedures. With the ease of operation through an online portal or app-based software, employer and employees look for enjoying benefits for a better overall experience. Such online GMC features can help in easy comparison, purchase, making changes to the policy, claim settlement process or customer service.
Wide Network of Hospitals
With work-from-home or work-from-anywhere becoming the norm, employers should now choose an insurer that has tie-ups with various multispecialty hospitals across the country. Many employees during the pandemic headed back to their hometowns and continue to stay there while pursuing remote work. If the plan doesn’t include hospitals from those areas, it might now be beneficial for the employee.
Room Rent Limits and Co-payments Clause
Co-payment clause requires the insured (employee) to pay a certain percentage of the hospital bill. Whereas, room rent limits can reduce the claim amounts. Both these are usually part of the exclusion in the policy thus, the employer should have a proper understanding of these GMC features.
Wellness Benefit
Plans with wellness benefits are now preferred over traditional plans. Wellness programs are intended to keep employees healthy, both physically as well as mentally. They are a kind of preventive healthcare measures which include yoga and gym sessions, and dietary recommendations.
These benefits also include features like online consultation, booking for a lab test or OPD appointments, etc. This latest GMC feature is one of the most sought-after benefits of recent times.
Conclusion
With the ever-changing work environment, the requirements of the employees too are changing. They now look forward to GMC features that are beneficial, plans that are easy to operate and insurers that are available 24X7.