Cover fit for your business
Your business is different from the rest. It makes sense to choose healthcare cover that is too. Here’s how you start to shape your plan:
Step one
Choose the cover options that are right for your business.
Step two
Decide who to cover and how you’d like to handle existing conditions.
Step three
Only pay for the cover you want.*
*If you are buying cover for 1-2 people only, you will need to include either the Treatment Option or the Diagnostics Only Option in your plan. For more information about our cover, any cover limitations and what we don't cover please see our product brochure.
Every cover option includes these benefits as standard
- 24/7 access to a private GP
Access to phone and video appointments with a GP or Advanced Nurse Practitioner. AXA Doctor at Hand, powered by Doctor Care Anywhere. Appointments subject to availability. Advanced Nurse Practitioners available 8am-10pm. - Muscles, bones and joints support
Get to the bottom of aches and pains with no need for a GP referral. Speak to the right expert over the phone or online. Our muscles, bones and joints service is available for members aged 18 and over. - Cancer and heart care
Telephone support from our experienced healthcare practioners, through the uncertainty of serious illness. - Health information phone line
24/7 health support through our health information phone line. - Wellbeing incentives
Up to 40% off monthly gym memberships** for you and all your employees, in addition to your business healthcare cover.
Cover for hospital procedures and operations, including surgery, plus radiotherapy and chemotherapy for cancer when you include Comprehensive Cancer Cover.
Waiting for a diagnosis can be a worrying time. This option makes sure you or your employees can see a specialist quickly if you become unwell.
Help your employees look after their teeth and eyesight with cashback towards dentists’ fees, glasses, contact lenses and eye tests.
Cover for referred treatments by an osteopath, physiotherapist, acupuncturist, homeopath or chiropractor.
Ensures employees with a GP referral are seen quickly by a specialist at a time and place suitable for them.
Look after more than just your employees’ physical health with cover for mental health treatment.
Makes it easy for you and your employees to see a private GP in person, promptly, at a time that’s convenient.
Provides even greater flexibility and choice over where your people are treated. Plus, extra cover for planned, pre-approved treatment abroad and cover for the routine management of chronic conditions like asthma.
If they’re going through difficult times, such as divorce or money problems, this option gives your people a professionally trained expert to talk to; on the phone, or in person, depending on the chosen programme.
Whether travelling for business or pleasure, cover your people for emergency medical treatment. You will also have access to other travel-related benefits.
Health assessments can provide guidance so your employees can make small changes to improve their health and wellbeing.
Take the complication out of covering existing conditions
Underwriting allows you to decide how you'll cover team members for any conditions they might have before joining us. The underwriting option that you choose can affect the cost of your healthcare cover. The underwriting options available are:
- Fully underwritten - This means that any pre-existing medical conditions that you or your team might have aren't covered. This option requires you and your employees to declare your medical history when you join.
- Two-year moratorium - Any pre-existing medical conditions may be covered after two years continuous cover, provided you've been completely trouble free from advice, treatment or a special diet for at least a continuous year after joining.
A pre-existing condition is any disease, injury or illness that you have received medication, advice or treatment for, or have experienced symptoms of, in the five years before the start of cover. - Continued medical exclusions - If you're joining us from another private health insurance provider, you could continue any underwriting arrangements that you had with your previous provider across to your new plan. The rules and benefits of your new plan with AXA Health will apply.
- Medical history disregarded - This underwriting option means that we could cover you and your team for pre-existing medical conditions, subject to your membership terms. This option is available if you're looking to cover 15 employees or more. With this option, we don't ask for medical history declarations from you and your team. Pre-existing conditions are accepted subject to the rules and benefits of the plan.
An example plan: £31.25 per month, per employee^
To help get you started, here's an example package. It’ll give you a feel for
costs, what’s right for you and how easy it is to make your own plan.
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^The above example is based on six employees (aged 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 & 50), living in Guildford, paying annually for a 5% discount, with a £100 excess and a two year moratorium on pre-existing conditions. Treatment, Therapies and Standard Out-patient options included. Costs are representative as of October 2023, and prices will vary depending on location, cover options and ages.
Get your Business Health insurance brochure
Our brochure tells you everything you need to know about health insurance benefits for small businesses.
The benefits of business health insurance
- Employee retention. Including small business health insurance in your employee benefits package can be a great way to retain your top team members. One survey found that 29% of employees said that private medical insurance was a key part of an employee employee benefits package1
- Recruitment incentive. Small business health insurance can also be a great incentive to help attract new team members to your business. Cover Magazine (2021) argue that small business health insurance can help you persuade top-level new recruits to commit to your business.2
- Flexible medical appointments. Small business health insurance also comes with the added benefit that medical appointments can often be at a time and place that works for you, so you can minimise the impact that they have on your day
- Workplace wellbeing. Small business health insurance can also be beneficial to overall workplace wellbeing as it provides your team with access to health information and support when they need it. So you can rest assured that should a member of your team have a concern or question about their health, we’ll be on hand to support them
- Productivity. Employee wellbeing can, in turn, have a number of benefits for a business including improved productivity. In a study by ABI, they found that 22% of SMEs rated having health and wellbeing benefits as critical for productivity.3
Sources and references
1Canada Life Group, 2022
2Cover Magazine, 2021
3ABI, 2021
What’s not covered?
As with most private healthcare plans, there are some general exclusions and limitations. Here are some of the most significant things that your plan won't cover:
- Routine pregnancy and childbirth.
- Out-patient drugs and dressings.
- Treatment of ongoing, recurrent and long-term conditions (chronic conditions).
- Cosmetic treatment.
- Treatment needed as a result of training for or taking part in any sport for which you are paid, receive a grant or sponsorship (not counting travel costs) or are competing for prize money.
- Treatment of medical conditions you had, or had symptoms of, before you joined. Depending on the underwriting option you choose.
- Fees if you choose to use a hospital that is not in our Directory of Hospitals.
This information is just a summary of some of the cover we offer and the key exclusions. For more information about our cover, any cover limitations and what we don't cover please see our product brochure.
Switch to AXA Health and save
We’ll aim to reduce your premiums by up to 10% if you switch your employee health cover to us.
Ways to lower your small business health insurance costs
Here are some other ways you can look after your employees while still keeping an eye on your bottom line.
- Pay up-front
Save 5% by paying your subscription yearly instead of monthly. - Guided option
Pay less for using specialists that we’ve sourced. Our appointments team will give you the option of up to three specialists and book an appointment to suit your employee. - Fix your subscription for two years
Know exactly how much you’ll be investing in each employee over the next two years (tax changes still apply.) - Choose an excess
Reduce your annual subscription with an excess of £0, £50, £100, £150, £200, £250, £325, £400, £500, £625 or £750 per employee.
Watch how businesses are doing healthcare cover their way
Every business needs to look after their employees differently to keep them at the top of their game. High pressure jobs might need mental health support. Physically strenuous work might need physio. Whatever your team needs, you can get it.
To get started, take a look at three example plans to give you an idea of how your plan could look and what it might cost. When you've got your head around the cover you might want, pick and choose the options that are right for you.
Health and wellbeing info, straight to your inbox
Sign up to receive our small business health and wellbeing newsletter straight to your inbox each month. Designed specifically for small business owners, our newsletter provides actionable advice and insights to help keep your employees healthy and happy, and to help keep your business growing.
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Receive insights from our in-house experts directly to your inbox on a number of health and wellbeing topics. |
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Read tips for how you can prioritise the health and wellbeing of your team. |
Defaqto - 5-Star Rated
We’re proud that our Business Health plan has been rated 5 stars by independent financial information business, Defaqto.
The Defaqto 5-star rating is based on an assessment of the overall product including all options. If some of the options are not selected, this will affect the product’s star rating.
Business health insurance FAQs
Our small business guide to health insurance covers lots more FAQs, you can read it here.
How does health insurance impact tax?
When providing private health insurance as an employee benefit to your team, it is considered to be a benefit in kind. Your employees will therefore need to pay tax on the benefit amount.
At the end of each tax year, employers have to complete a P11D form for every employee who has received expenses or benefits in addition to their salary (this doesn’t include routine business expenses and benefits like travel and company car fuel).
Read our blog post to find out more about how private medical insurance impacts tax
How much does business health insurance cost?
At AXA Health, we think that the best way for you to get the healthcare cover that’s right for your business and your budget is to let you build your plan yourself. That’s why we offer a range of healthcare cover options, so you only pay for the cover you need^.
As well as tailoring your cover and choosing only the options you need, we also have a number of cost saving options available so you can look after your people whilst still keeping an eye on your bottom line.
Find out more about our cost saving options.
^If you’re buying healthcare cover for 1-2 people only, you will need to include either Treatment or Diagnostics Only in your plan.
What are chronic conditions?
Small business health insurance, in most cases, covers the cost of private treatment for new acute conditions that develop after your plan has started (depending on the details of your plan). Chronic conditions generally aren’t covered on most small business health insurance plans.
A chronic condition is a disease, illness or injury that has one or more of the following characteristics:
- It needs ongoing or long-term monitoring through consultations, examinations, check-ups and/or tests
- It needs ongoing or long-term control or relief of symptoms
- It requires your rehabilitation or for you to be specially trained to cope with it
- It continues indefinitely
- It has no known cure
- It comes back or is likely to come back
What is a pre-existing condition?
A pre-existing medical condition is any disease, illness or injury that:
- You have received medication, advice or treatment for in the five years before the start of your cover, or
- You have experienced symptoms of in the five years before the start of your cover whether or not the condition was diagnosed.
The process of underwriting determines whether pre-existing medical conditions are covered on your plan. The underwriting option that you choose can affect the cost of your healthcare cover.
More information on the process of underwriting can be found in our Small Business Guide to Health Insurance.
Small Business Guide to Health Insurance
At AXA Health, we understand that if you’ve considered adding private health insurance to your employee benefits package then you probably have a lot of questions around how it works. That’s why we’ve created our Small Business Guide to Health Insurance. The guide covers off a number of frequently asked questions, including:
- What underwriting options are available and what can’t I claim for?
- How does private health insurance impact tax?
- How does the claims process work?
* Phone lines are open 8:30am-5:30pm Monday to Friday. We may record and/or monitor calls for quality assurance, training and as a record of our conversation.
**Discount applies to Nuffield Health fitness and wellbeing centre monthly individual membership only. Your employees must provide proof of membership and/or employer. You, your spouse, partner or dependent must be a named member on a current AXA Health healthcare plan to get a 40% discount and be 18 years or older. As a member, you can access your home club (the one you select on joining) as well as many more clubs around the country. These depend on your home club. You must use your home club at least 50% of the time. The joining fee is £39 and may be subject to change by Nuffield Health. Existing members of Nuffield Health who transfer to a 40% off AXA Health discount will be charged a £39 administration fee by Nuffield Health. AXA Health reserves the right to withdraw or alter this offer at any time. The Read full terms and conditions at axahealth.co.uk/terms/gym-discount.
40% off Nuffield Health 24/7 online memberships - available to your employees and their spouses, with or without an AXA Health membership. Read full terms and conditions at axahealth.co.uk/terms/gym-discount.
40% off the purchase of a Hussle Monthly+ pass is available to members on an AXA Health healthcare plan. A partner or spouse and direct dependants included on their healthcare plan can also get 40% off the purchase of a Hussle Monthly+ pass. 33% off a Hussle Monthly+ pass is available to employees of AXA Health healthcare clients not covered by a company healthcare plan. They must provide proof of employer. Members must be over 16 to redeem AXA Health discounts with Hussle. Some venues have alternative age restrictions and will be flagged on the gym details page. Read full terms and conditions at axahealth.co.uk/terms/gym-discount.