Norwich Union Healthcare is to boost its international medical insurance offerings, Global Care and Global Care Plus.
The revamped range has a global HR assistance service included, provided by international human resources organisation ECA, said NU.
It said corporate Global Care customers would have access country profiles with an HR focus, an international HR helpline and a bank of articles looking at global HR management issues.
NU said this information would be of use to both employers and to employees moving abroad for the first time or to an unfamiliar country.
The new range of products is aimed at individuals and groups covering 3 to 1,000 employees. Premiums and commission payable will depend on the size of the scheme.
Norwich Union Healthcare divides the world into five rating areas, providing progressive cover. Outside the selected area individuals are covered in all lower rated areas and in higher rated areas Global Care provides emergency treatment and evacuation cover up to 60 days per policy year.
Key benefits of the Global Care range include:
· in-patient, day-patient and out-patient treatment,
· no hospital restrictions giving policyholders an unlimited choice of hospitals (with help locating an appropriate hospital if required),
· elective home country treatment option,
· compassionate travel benefit,
· 24 hour medical emergency helpline,
· 24 hour medical information,
· global HR assistance services for corporate customers,
· 60 day world-wide travel extension, and
· chronic conditions benefit.
Shah Rouf, head of international at Norwich Union Healthcare said: “It's often said that moving house ranks among the top five most stressful events we face in our lives. It follows that being posted abroad and moving your entire life to another country, is an even more fundamental life shift.
“A recent Harvard Business Review article, ‘the right way to manage expats', discovered that an alarming number of international assignments fail in one way or another.
“Many return home early, others leave the company within a year of being repatriated, whilst others finish the assignment, but do not perform as well as expected.
“However, if a company has access to the right information, via organisations such as ECA, coupled with the peace of mind of knowing that any health problems can be taken care of, with access to high quality healthcare wherever their employees are in the world, it helps make the move smoother and less stressful for all concerned.”
