We’re sending our UK individual health and dental plan members and SME companies with health insurance the rebate we pledged in April 2020 as part of our response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Our promise to you
“We’re committed to doing the right thing by our members. Any reduction in claims costs compared to 2019* arising from delays in treatment due to the coronavirus crisis will be refunded in proportion to your subscription paid.”
Tracy Garrad, CEO AXA Health
The pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to everyday life, particularly when it comes to accessing the healthcare support and services. That’s why we promised you that, as part of our ongoing coronavirus response, we’d take this disruption into account and provide a refund to our UK health and dental plan members and SMEs with AXA PPP healthcare, Health-on-Line, SecureHealth or PHC-branded health insurance.
We originally outlined these plans back in April 2020. You’ll remember that hospitals were focused on helping the NHS and there was a lot of disruption to private facilities. We anticipated a reduction in claims and made a promise to you that, if our claims costs for 2020 and 2021 were lower than they were in 2019, we would refund a proportion of your subscription payments.
We’ve now issued all the customer promise refunds and we’ve also donated £25,000 to both Maggie’s and Cancer Research UK charities.
Customer Promise Terms and Conditions
Here are answers to some questions you may have.
Individual plan holders
Our promise was to individual health insurance members and SME groups who had an AXA PPP Healthcare, Health-on-Line, Secure Health or PHC-branded private health plan or AXA PPP Dental plan in force between 1 January 2020 and 7 April 2020 (Our original terms for the promise were extended to include customers joining before the 7 April).
The total refund is paid for from the exceptional profit made during January 2020 to December 2021 inclusive, due to the reduced claims members made during the pandemic. To calculate the actual amount, we first calculated the ratio of claims paid in relation to active subscriptions on health and dental plans for 2019. We then compared that with the equivalent figures for 2020 and 2021 to work out how much the pandemic affected our members. We then calculated refunds in proportion to subscription payments made in 2020 and 2021. The final amount takes into account any temporary premium reduction you may have received between 1 April 2020 and 31 December 2021. The calculations were independently reviewed and verified by Grant Thornton UK LLP for transparency – a leading audit, assurance and advisory firm.
Our memberships run annually, with payments not always being processed in the same year as claims have been made. We therefore waited until the end of 2021 and took time to assess the impact of the pandemic on how our members used their health cover. We also anticipated a surge in claims when private health services resumed, so we’ve taken time to make sure we’re financially sustainable and in a position to settle any backlog of claims.
The refund will be made as a one-off payment.
We’ll begin processing refunds from early May 2022. We anticipate most refunds will be completed by the end of May 2022. All eligible refunds will be made within 7 to 10 working days by cheque or, if you pay by Direct Debit, directly to the bank account from which your subscription is paid. The same will apply to any lapsed customers eligible for a refund.
Yes. If you moved from a plan that qualifies for a refund and enrolled onto another eligible plan within 30 days, we’ll have taken the subscription payments from both into account when calculating your refund.
No, your premiums will not increase to pay for the refund. The total refund is fully paid for from the exceptional profit made due to reduced claims we incurred during the pandemic. It will not be considered when we look at prices going forward. A number of factors can cause premiums to increase annually, such as claims made, age and medical inflation, costs of advances in technology, new treatments, healthcare delivery and usage across the country.
If your refund is below our minimum amount for payment, we’ll donate it to charity. The minimum amount for payment is £2 by Direct Debit, or £5 by cheque per policyholder. We set these amounts to recognise the processing costs we incur. For all these small refunds, we committed to making a meaningful donation, which will be split equally between Maggie’s and Cancer Research UK charities. (The donation of £25,000 to each of these charities was made in August 2022.)
Refunds will be paid by BACS (i.e. bank transfer) if you pay by Direct Debit, directly to the bank account from which your subscription is paid, or was previously paid. If you paid by credit or debit card, your refund will be paid by cheque.
SME groups and Brokers
Our promise was to individual health insurance members and SME groups who had an AXA PPP Healthcare, Health-on-Line, Secure Health or PHC-branded private health plan or AXA PPP Dental plan in force between 1 January 2020 and 7 April 2020 (Our original terms for the promise were extended to include customers joining before the 7 April).
The total refund is paid for from the exceptional profit made during January 2020 to December 2021 inclusive, due to the reduced claims members made during the pandemic. To calculate the actual amount, we first calculated the ratio of claims paid in relation to active subscriptions on health and dental plans for 2019. We then compared that with the equivalent figures for 2020 and 2021 to work out how much the pandemic affected our members. We then calculated refunds in proportion to subscription payments made in 2020 and 2021. The final amount takes into account any temporary premium reduction you may have received between 1 April 2020 and 31 December 2021. The calculations were independently reviewed and verified by Grant Thornton UK LLP for transparency – a leading audit, assurance and advisory firm.
Our memberships run annually, with payments not always being processed in the same year as claims have been made. We therefore waited until the end of 2021 and took time to assess the impact of the pandemic on how our members used their health cover. We also anticipated a surge in claims when private health services resumed, so we’ve taken time to make sure we’re financially sustainable and in a position to settle any backlog of claims.
We’ll begin processing refunds from early May 2022. We anticipate most refunds will be completed by the end of May 2022. All eligible refunds will be made within 7 to 10 working days by cheque or, if you pay by Direct Debit, directly to the bank account from which your subscription is paid. The same will apply to any lapsed customers eligible for a refund.
For some SME groups, the refund amount is below our minimum amount for payment of £2 by Direct Debit, or £5 by cheque. We set these amounts to recognise the processing costs we incur. For all these small refunds, we committed to making a meaningful donation, which will be split equally between Maggie’s and Cancer Research UK charities. (The donation of £25,000 to each of these charities was made in August 2022.)
The refund will be made as a one-off payment.
We’ll issue the refund to the SME group.
No, there’s no admin fee for the refund.
No. We’ll automatically pay all SME refunds to the group account we hold on our system. Unfortunately, we’re unable to send the refund directly to another account.
Refunds will be paid by BACS (i.e. bank transfer) if you pay by Direct Debit, directly to the bank account from which your subscription is paid, or was previously paid. If you paid by credit or debit card, your refund will be paid by cheque.
PHC customers
Read the PHC Q&A.
Standalone Travel customers Q&A
Read the Travel Q&A.
CashBack customers Q&A
Read the CashBack Q&A.
"AXA has engaged Grant Thornton UK LLP to review how AXA Health is proposing to fulfil its Customer Promise and to consider whether the proposed approach delivers on the commitment it made to customers in the Customer Promise. We consider that AXA’s proposed approach to implementing its Customer Promise is reasonable and that it appropriately balances the varying interests of customers." Grant Thornton UK LLP
Contact us
You can email us at information@axahealth.co.uk
Phone
If your membership number starts with HOL or AXA (i.e. HOL/A1234567 or AXA/R1234567), call 0800 111 4706 (Lines are open Mon-Fri 8am to 6pm)
If your membership number starts with a number (i.e. 1234567A) call 0800 111 4704 (Lines are open Mon-Fri 8am to 8pm, Sat 9am to 5pm)
If you have a business plan call 0800 051 8002 (Lines are open Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm)