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Private
Medical Insurance (PMI) provides the ability
to receive private, as opposed to NHS, treatment. The
main advantages of private treatment are:
- Choice of specialist and
hospital.
- Speed of obtaining treatment.
- Control over when the treatment
takes place.
- Comfort and privacy of
private hospital rooms.
Yet the history of PMI
has been marred by adverse consumer reaction such as
the highly critical Office of Fair Trading reports in
1996 and 1998. In this environment, the service
and ethical standards of the insurer become as important
as the cover itself.
In common with most Individual Private
Medical Insurance cover, Medicare Options Plan is a “budget
scheme”. It makes no attempt to provide comprehensive
cover for every treatment that might occur, such as open
heart surgery and chemotherapy, but instead aims to provide
affordable cover for the more routine, elective treatments
that have always been the mainstay of private medicine.
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It
places control in the hands of the Member. The
options which give the Plan its name Provide
the means to increase or decrease the basic
package’s
level of benefit and subscription, tailoring both
the cover and the price to the customer’s
requirements.
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There is a No Claims
Bonus which can reduce subscriptions by up to
15%.
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The
Plan is simple to understand and use. The
benefits are all stated clearly as cash amounts;
there is a clear list of the things for which
we do not pay; and claiming
is easy – our Claim Forms require no medical
certification and most claims are settled within
48 hours.
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Options Plan is
administered by the unique PHSA service and
ethical culture that places an emphasis on
human values and which prefers fairness and
natural justice to slavish adherence to rules.
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