Health Shield News

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Health Shield announces annual results.

Award-winning Health Cash Plan and Wellbeing provider Health Shield has announced its 2019 results, revealing another year of growth across all its wellbeing products and services. Despite the challenging backdrop last year – articulated by an increasingly competitive health and wellbeing market and Brexit related uncertainty – the friendly society’s premium income rose by 4%, the 19th year in succession it has increased.

annual-results-2019

Health Shield achieved revenue of £42.9m, up from £41.3m in 2018. Membership also continued to increase, with 113,000 members joining during the year. The society now covers 345,000 contributing members and their families.

Health Shield key results:

  • 4% rise in premium income.
  • 113,000 new members.
  • 1.4% increase in claims received, totalling 628,187 and equating to nearly £31 million paid to members in 2019.
  • 2,500 claims a day, on average: more than 9 out of 10 were processed within 2 working days in 2019, allowing customers to be reimbursed quickly.
  • 4.5 out of 5 overall customer satisfaction rating for claims.
  • Over 43,000 interactions with its EAP provider, providing more than 8,500 advice and counselling calls and more than 1,200 counselling sessions.
  • Seen an average of 4,098 users per month of the GP Anytime service.
  • The users of our NHS-Approved^ Wellbeing App, Thrive increased by over 200% throughout 2019 and at the end of the year there were nearly 40,000 employees receiving help to proactively manage their mental health.
  • Over 1,000 users per day of PERKs – offering discounts on leisure, shopping and wellbeing activities. In total, members saving on average £5,783 per month.
  • Launched Breeze in October 2019, bringing together a wide range of specialist health and wellbeing services (physical, emotional, financial & social) making them accessible via a single interface on any digital device.
  • Simplified and remarketed the Health Cash Plan range, ensuring pricing and design flexibility (tiered pricing, modular benefits and top-up options) plus a clear focus on care pathways, the use of MI and options for companies from just 3 employees upwards.
  • Winner of Health Insurance & Protection Daily’s Best Health Cash Plan provider award and also the Cover Excellence award for Best Cash Plan.
Commenting on the results, CEO Courtney Marsh said: “I’m incredibly proud of the whole team at Health Shield. Achieving 4% growth in premium income - making 2019 the 19th consecutive year we have increased our premium income and consistently in excess of the market average - is a fantastic achievement, especially when you consider the backdrop: an extremely competitive health and wellbeing market and uncertainty around the exit and transition from the EU. These challenges will obviously endure despite all eyes being on the pandemic this year.“

Fortunately, over its 140+ years, Health Shield has become accustomed to riding and surviving many storms. This is due to the fact that we are continuously evolving in line with our unwavering overall aim – a commitment to excellent customer service and operating in the best interests of our members: namely our customers and our own employees.

“2019 represented a seminal year for Health Shield, which saw us rebranding the company, undergoing a complete digital transformation and launching a new digitally-enabled health and wellness proposition in the shape of Breeze: the three elements intrinsically linked and aligned with our ‘living and breathing’ - as opposed to words on a wall - brand values: always listening, member focused and continually improving.

“Each and every one of our services is designed to help businesses and their employees stay in the best of health. And, although no-one could have predicted what was to happen in 2020, the developments introduced in 2019 could not have come at a more crucial time for our customers: 9 in 10 UK CEOs** now saying that conducting wellbeing initiatives is driving long-term changes to their business model as a result of Covid-19 and almost a quarter adding that doing so would have the biggest positive impact on their organisation’s long-term reputation.”

*Based on a 1-hour appointment and an 8-hour working day
**PwC, CEO Panel Survey 2020 – UK Findings, Aug 2020
^The app meets NHS quality standards for clinical effectiveness, safety, usability and accessibility and has a supportive evidence base.