AIG Life has created two income protection pathways for employers, explaining how group IP can help their workforce navigate cancer and musculoskeletal conditions.
The guides explain to employers what their employees can do to try to prevent specific health conditions, and the support available through their group policy when employees are too ill to work.
They focus specifically on cancer and musculoskeletal conditions and follow AIG's mental health pathway launched last year.
Chris Morgan, head of group protection distribution, said: “The pathways have been designed with employers in mind as it can be difficult to know what to do or how to help a colleague.
“This practical guide helps employers quickly and easily understand the support that is there to help both employee and the business, so they know how to gain full value from their group income protection.”
AIG found mental health, cancer and MSK were the most common conditions that employees want help with.
It said almost half (45 per cent) of group income protection claims paid by AIG in 2020 were for these three conditions.
The pathways' content is broken down into five sections:
- Prevention – giving employees the tools and knowledge from day one of their policy to reduce the risk of a health condition;
- Diagnosis and treatment – giving employees guidance when it is needed and advice to employers on what to do and say when a colleague is having treatment;
- Absence notification;
- Vocational rehabilitation during and after treatment;
- Making a claim.
In late 2020 AIG started to revamp its CI cover by grouping conditions under four headings, focussing on specific surgeries or the impact on daily life for customers, rather than the name of the illness.
This meant the customer will be covered if the impact is the same, regardless of the name of the condition.
Last July the provider continued its CI revamp by consolidating the conditions insured under its group CI product into eight categories.
These are degenerative neurological disorder, reduced heart function, surgery to the heart, aorta or pulmonary artery, surgery via the skull, brain injury, loss of use of a limb, lung disease or removal, and blindness or removal of an eyeball.
Adam Higgs, head of research at Protection Guru, said: "AIG have made a big push to provide more services to help clients better manage their health and as such reduce the risk of illness.
"These kinds of services benefit all involved as employers can help support their workforce and reduce absentees, employees are provided with the tools to help them live in better health and reduce the risk of becoming seriously ill and the insurer can reduce the number of claims."
carmen.reichman@ft.com
