AXA PPP healthcare expands open referral

Private medical insurance provider AXA PPP healthcare has enhanced its corporate health insurance offering with the introduction of its new Healthcare Pathway policy. The policy uses an open referral process and means that there will now be a wider range of hospitals available under the scheme.

What does 'open referral' mean?

Well, previously what would happen without open referral is that someone who was requiring treatment that the private medical insurance policy they held covered them for, they would be given the name of a consultant by their doctor. With open referral, instead of the patient being referred to a consultant in this way, they are provided with a list of consultants by their insurer - and they make the choice from this list.

Currently, open referral isn't the most common choice for big organisations, but the insurer's direcotr of sales and client relationships has said that the company hopes that this will be the default choice within two to there years.

One of the big benefits of PMI - whether you purchase a policy for yourself or its provided by an employer is the aspect of choice - and open referral being rolled out to more hospitals will certainly give corporate clients a wider choice.

It was also reported recently that sales of business health insurance have increased year on year - perhaps down to a continuing need for firms to attract and retain the best staff as the competition for talent remauns strong. Of course it's also the case that - as studies have shown - providing staff with wellbeing benefits has the potential to postively affect sickness absence in terms of reducing it, as well as increase employee engagement rates.

Hospitals and and food: healthier plates?

Last year, Jamie Oliver added his voice to a campaign aimed at improving the healthy factor of food within NHS hospitals in England – and there were also calls for vending machines selling sweets and crisps to be removed.

Oliver has of course been famous for the last few years for his healthy eating crusades, memorably showing people on his television programmes just how much sugar or fat they eat by dumping a month or year’s worth into a container in one go, with horrified looks from the audience.

Then of course there was Oliver’s valiant attempt to promote healthy eating within a school across the Atlantic.  Holding up a selection of fairly ordinary vegetables, many of the class pupils he asked were unable to identify even the most common among them.

Obviously mass catering on a budget does present its challenges – as Oliver found out while working to improve the food in a UK school. I don’t remember the exact amount of budget the school had available for each meal, but it really wasn’t very much at all. However a report on the subject by the Daily Mail last year gave the example of two NHS trusts in England who cook all their food fresh on site and source their ingredients from independent local suppliers.

In New York, Mayor Bloomberg is aiming to make hospitals places of improved healthy eating with his Healthy Hospital Food Initiative – with public hospitals taking measures to decrease the amount of calories in the meals served to patients, while cutting down on the sale of things like crisps and sweets.

The reasons why people choose PMI

Of all the things that are important in life, health is right up there at the top. Having enough money to get by is of course a top priority for all of us, and for many it's also good to have some cash spare for going on holiday in an exotic location or driving a prestige car.

But health remains the number one. So it's no wonder that we try and keep our consumption of fatty foods low, and make sure there's plenty of fruit and vegetables in our diet. And staying active too - with a gym nearby or a nice park to go for a walk in, being active can also be good fun - so much so that when we're laid low with a cold or flue, we miss our fitness activities and can't wait to get back to the pool for a swim or the local park for a brisk stroll.

And there are a number of ways that we can help to keep our wellbeing and healthy levels up. Things like stress management techniques can help us to deal with the stresses and strains that affect us all at some point in our lives - and there have even been news stories saying that mindfulness meditation can positively affect the human brain.

Having peace of mind is valuable too - family medical insurance means knowing that if you or one of your family requires any treatment that's covered under the policy, they'll be seen in surroundings that are well equipped and also you'll be able to avoid waiting lists too.

Smoking and the workplace

Older readers of our blog will probably remember the days when smoking was just an inescapable fact of everyday life. people smoked on the bus, at their desk in the office - and even in shops. It's incredible to think back to those days now. And it's a fair bet that even if a modern day smoker was to travel back in time to the 1960s or 70s, even they would find the sheer prevalance of smoking in enclosed public spaces to be excessive.


Of course, as time passed, bit by bit smoking was eradicated. Smokers in offices by the mid 1980s were only allowed to indulge the habit in a closed off room in the building. Needless to say, if you ever had to enter one of these rooms to speak to someone within, the air was heavy with cigarette smoke - a fug, a cloud - rendering the air almost opaque.

Around the same time, a lot of bus companies made the top deck the only smoking area. And in time, offices would only allow staff to smoke out in the street, off the premises. And smoking was banned on public transport. And smoking in public buildings was finally stubbed out in the middle of the last decade when it was prohibited in bars and restaurants.

And how quickly we got used to it. Nobody - not even smokers themselves (or none that I've met, at any rate) - ever gets nostalgic about the old days.

This week brings news of a development from the US, where -never mind smoking being banned - where one city has made the decision not to employ smokers, in an effort to cut spending on health insurance. This news follows that of another authority which still hires smokers but requires them to pay towards the raised insurance premium.

Stopping smoking and being healthier

As the nights begin to get longer and the summer recedes into recent memory, it's a good time to think about all the things we do to stay healthy. Perhaps, for instance, there's a temptation - when the temperature dips below summer levels - to reach for the comfort food. But then when you think of all the great food that's in season during the autumn, there are comfort options that are very healthy, such as pumpkin soup. And of course when it's colder it might not be so much fun to exercise - but there's always the welcoming lights of the gym instead.

And autumn - if you're a smoker - is a good time to think about giving up on tobacco products for good. Stopping smoking is pretty much the health mantra no matter what area of your health you're trying to improve on. Whether it's to increase your fitness levels, improve oral health, or reduce the risk of serious disease - stopping smoking is one of the most important things you can do.

The UK health campaign Stoptober is designed to help people give up for good, and it has an interesting basis - the idea is that by challenging people to stay off cigarettes or other smoking products for four weeks, then it increases the likelihood of being able to stop smoking for good.

In terms of health and wellbeing for the autumn time there are also some other things worth thinking about, including:

• Looking at getting a health eating plan together
• Refreshing your fitness plan
• Looking at private healthcare options
• If you're busy at work and have too much to do, having a look at the various stress management techniques available to keep you mentally alert and focussed during your working day.

Insomnia and health

For many of us, the often-quote figure of 8 hours sleep a night is just that - an often-quoted figure rather than a realistic amount of time spent sleeping during the night time.

The reasons for not getting enough sleep are many, and can include things like:

• too many caffeinated drinks before bed
• body clock affected by long haul travel
• a new arrival in the family
• coughs and colds
• worries about work or other life challenges
• indigestion
• toothache

The examples above of course are down to specific causes and in many cases will be temporary. But for many, lack of sleep is more persistent. So it's understandable that people seek a way to deal with it - but according to recent news, the use of sleeping pills could bring risks with it. Essentially, what's happening is that many who are experiencing problems with sleep may be using non prescription products to deal with sleeplessness rather than looking at possible root causes for the lack of sleep.

And while many of the causes of sleeplessness may be down to things like eating too late at night, some of the things that can make people unable to sleep are more serious - such as asthma and heart disease.

So, if you're having trouble sleeping, the best thing to do is, of course, seek advice from the doctor.

Health news: preventing cancer

In the past it was something that many of us would have perhaps been reluctant to discuss, but thanks to the great work of charities and health professionals, more and more of us are aware of what we can do to reduce our risk of various forms of cancer.

From self-checking for symptoms of testicular cancer and breast cancer, to healthy eating and skin care, most of us these days are much more aware of the things we need to do to stay healthy and minimise the risks. And of course it goes without saying that maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking and keeping within the recommended alcohol intake limits' won't just help us lower our cancer risk, they'll also mean we're healthier and feel better in general.

And as time progresses survival rates are improving, according to NHS Choices, for most cancers. While this is great news, it looks as if there could be room for improvement. New figures released this week by the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) show that almost a quarter of all cancers are diagnosed while the patient is in hospital for emergency treatment. In some cases this happens when the patient was admitted for something other than symptoms relating to the cancer, but received the diagnosis after undergoing routine tests.

There is some good online info on cancer available from government health sites and private health insurance providers - including advice on cancer prevention as well as information on various types of the disease. 

The figures for older people being diagnosed in A&E is currently higher than the overall figures at around a third, which may well mean that at some point in the future we'll see some initiatives in reducing the figure and ensuring as many cases of the disease are diagnosed as early as possible.