There’s so much to think about and do when an employee leaves your business. When are they going? Recruiting for their role? What adjustments need to be made for accrued holiday and pay? What happens in respect to their pension and benefits?
It's easy to overlook notifying AXA Health about someone who's leaving your company scheme, but here's why it's important that you do, for both you and the employee.
Six reasons why early notification of your corporate healthcare scheme leavers helps you and your employees
Vulnerable employees
We don’t always know what’s going on behind the scenes, and what the healthcare needs employees and their families have.
An employee who is leaving the company and any family members included on the scheme have the option to take out a personal plan with the same underwriting that they had on the company scheme. This means they can continue to claim for any condition(s) that they may have previously been claiming for, subject to the benefits, exclusions and limitations of their new individual healthcare plan. This option is exclusively offered to leaving employees and not generally available on the open market and is only available for 120 days after they leave your employment.
As we can’t back date the start of their new individual healthcare plan, any claims made between leaving and starting a personal plan won’t be covered. Which can make all the difference to those employees and their family members who may be undergoing a course of treatment.
Housekeeping
It goes without saying how important it is to keep employee records up to date and your healthcare scheme is no exception. Knowing the number of employees on your scheme makes reconciliation easy and can help with budgeting and keeping the costs down, especially at scheme renewal.
Treatment
Although cover ends on the day your employee leaves, they could be under the impression that their cover on your healthcare scheme will extend through to the completion of a course of treatment. As soon as you advise us that your employee is leaving, we’ll contact them to confirm the date that cover will end. This lets everyone know where they stand in terms of their benefit.
Claims leakage
If we aren’t told that your employee has left, we could continue to authorise treatment in the event that your former employee continues to contact us regarding a claim, and this can be costly. Early notification avoids the risk of this happening.
Health and Wellbeing
Leaving employment is the final stage of the employee’s health and wellbeing journey in your organisation. In terms of helping your employees flourish and feel supported you’ll still want to maintain the same quality of care for your leavers as your new starters. Updating AXA Health so we can discuss the options available to them on a personal plan as they get ready to leave their employment is so much more than just a tick box exercise.
Talent bank
Recruiting staff with the right skillset is becoming increasingly difficult. You never know when you might want to take on a former member of staff who has critical business knowledge and key expertise, at a later stage in their career. Whenever possible we all want to part on the best of terms. Because healthcare cover is one of the most valued employee benefits you’ll want to ensure that should your leavers require it, that they can seamlessly transition from company scheme to individual plan and maintain cover for themselves and their loved ones.1
Making a lasting impression
How we manage the leaving process, including membership of a company healthcare scheme, is a reflection of our personal and professional integrity, and speaks volumes about our company culture, reputation and brand. At the end of the day we want to treat others as we would like to be treated, and that means looking after the healthcare and safeguarding the future of our people. That’s always the bottom line.
1 The 10 best UK employee benefits to offer your staff (2022) - Drewberry Insurance
Helping you support employees who are leaving
Share a copy of our leaflet with your employee once you have confirmation they are leaving, or ask them to call us on
0800 015 6356
You can find the leaflet and more information on our dedicated web page using the link below.
For employees who need a little extra support and care when leaving their employment with you, please contact your account manager or email our leaver team using the link below. They’ll treat these enquiries with the strictest confidentiality and discretion and provide the support you and your employee needs.