Choosing a corporate health partner

Check that the care is properly regulated

In England, anyone who carries on a regulated activity must register with the Care Quality Commission unless an exception applies [1]. The regulated activities include treatment of disease, disorder or injury, diagnostic and screening procedures, and medical advice provided remotely, and each needs its own registration [2].

The law behind this is firm. Carrying on a regulated activity without registration is an offence [3]. When the Commission registers a service, it checks that the service is likely to meet the fundamental standards, the standards below which care must never fall [4].

Outside England, each country has its own regulator, and a partner working in several cities should be able to tell you who regulates the care in each one.

Check the doctors

Every doctor practising in the United Kingdom appears on the General Medical Council’s register, which anyone can search by name or reference number to see a doctor’s registration status [5]. Ask for the reference numbers of the doctors who will see your people, and check them yourself.

Check how health data is protected

Information about a person’s health is special category data under UK data protection law, with extra protection [6]. The Information Commissioner publishes guidance for employers on handling the health information of the people who work for them [7].

Processing health data on a large scale requires a data protection impact assessment, and the Commissioner recommends one whenever there is doubt [8]. Ask your partner for its assessment, its data processing agreement and a description of what the company will and will not see.

Check that your people can use it where they are

A benefit works only where it can be used. Ask the partner to show, city by city, how a person books an appointment, how quickly they are seen, and who follows them if they are admitted to hospital.

Then ask how a request reaches a person. A concierge who arranges care removes most of the effort that stops people using what they have.

A procurement checklist

These are the documents and answers worth having before you sign.

• Registration with the regulator for each regulated activity, in each country
• GMC reference numbers for the doctors who will see your people
• The data processing agreement and the data protection impact assessment
• A sample of the anonymised report the company will receive
• How care is arranged, city by city, including hospital admission
• What happens when someone needs more care than the plan holds
• The renewal terms, and how the contract is reviewed each year
• References from organisations of a similar size and spread

How to compare price fairly

Compare what a person actually receives for the fee. Two quotes can look alike until you ask what is included, what is billed as an extra, who arranges the care, and how many separate contracts the company would still hold alongside it.

Then compare the whole year. A price per person per month is easy to read, and the total cost of every policy, invoice and renewal the company keeps is the number your finance team will live with.

Questions for the first meeting

The answers to these tell you more than any brochure.

• Who will my people speak to when they need care, and how quickly?
• Show me how an appointment is arranged in each of our cities.
• What does the company see, and what does it never see?
• How do you measure whether the membership is working, and how will you report it?

Due diligence is now expected

Supplier checks are becoming standard. In a survey of business leaders responsible for their people’s safety, 71% said they carry out due diligence on suppliers’ security, health and wellbeing standards [9].

What The Wellness for teams provides

Our doctors are registered with the General Medical Council, and regulated services are delivered through registered partner clinics and accredited laboratories. The membership holds inpatient, outpatient and dental care, diagnostics and health programmes in 13 cities, arranged by one concierge.

A data processing agreement is signed before anyone joins, and the company sees anonymised reporting only, with small groups left out.