Outpatient care plans for employees have gained popularity in Belgium in recent years. In 10 years’ time the number of employers offering an outpatient or dental care plan has doubled. More and more employers are recognizing the importance of an outpatient care plan for their employees in order to distinguish themselves on the labour market.
Because an outpatient or dental care plan constitutes a tangible benefit for employees, it is also a distinctive way to position yourself as a caring employer. In addition, you obviously have every interest in ensuring that your employees stay healthy through more accessible and affordable health care.
Hospitalisation insurance has been widespread for many years. However, due to health policy developments an increasing number of medical costs are not covered by hospitalisation insurance since more and more often medical treatments, procedures and examinations are no longer carried out in hospital but on an outpatient basis. Besides, in recent years ever more attention is being paid to preventive care and well-being: employees are increasingly aware of the importance of a healthy lifestyle and are more likely to call upon doctors and experts for help. Expensive dental care such as orthodontics and dental prostheses, with costs mainly borne by the patient, only increases the importance of outpatient care insurance.
Did you know that more than two thirds of the medical costs borne by patients are outpatient costs? And that an outpatient costs insurance is being used ten times more often than a hospitalisation insurance, making this a much more tangible benefit for your employees? Further details can be found in this blog. With a handy app, submitting medical costs moreover becomes child’s play.
And the cost? This depends on the guarantees and the coverage limit. You can either take out a full outpatient care plan for your employees or a dental care plan only. You can determine the maximum amount and percentage of the outpatient care costs to be reimbursed per year. The sectoral salary margin of 0.4% may eventually be used to implement such a plan. Your account manager can draw up various options for a customised plan.
An outpatient or dental care plan provides a clear added value to your employees. They receive, as it were, a ‘cash’ benefit that they can use on a daily basis. But obviously an outpatient care plan has to be experienced as such by the employees themselves or it will fail to achieve its objective.
To avoid that this additional salary benefit proves to be nothing more than an empty shell, an objective comparison of the different outpatient care plans on the market is essential. After all, premium and benefits are determined by various elements, such as the selected guarantees and possible exclusions, the annual reimbursement limits, the reimbursement percentages, waiting periods, etc. A detailed comparison gives you the opportunity to examine which outpatient guarantees best suit your HR policy and budget, and whether you would opt for a full outpatient care plan or a dental care plan.
The minimum guaranteed return on supplementary pensions has been 1.75% since 2016. On 1 January 2025, following this long period at a constant level, the statutory guaranteed return will rise to 2.50%. What impact does this increase have on your company’s pension schemes?
By means of global benefits management, your organisation can easily run a strong employee benefits package worldwide. This structured, central approach provides a useful overview of all benefits and enables you to put together an attractive package in the war for talent. If social security is non-existent or too limited in one of the countries where you’re based, you can also provide your employees there with additional support through this insurance package. Employee benefits expert Kristof Baertsoen talks about the advantages of global benefits management in the latest episode of our video podcast Succes Verzekerd.
From 1 November 2024, hospitalisation insurance will cover the costs of a suicide attempt. The law of 21 April 2024 has amended existing health cost insurance legislation to this end.
Since 2019, local authorities have been encouraged to introduce or develop a supplementary pension scheme for the benefit of their contractual staff. If – among other requirements – this supplementary pension scheme is large enough, meaning in practice a contribution of at least 3% to a defined contribution scheme, the local authority is eligible for a discount of up to 50% on the additional annual shortfall contribution. This discount is adjusted by the latest pension reform to maintain the financial robustness of the Common Pension Fund.
Any further questions about the implementation of an outpatient care plan? Please contact your Account Manager Employee Benefits or Consultant Health Care at Vanbreda Risk & Benefits. They will be happy to provide further advice and guidance.