Various database companies offer assistance in comparing income protection policies offering medical assistance.
Defaqto and F&TRC’s Quality Analyser can assist in filtering out the companies that do not offer a particular benefit, says Alan Lakey, director of CI Expert.
But ultimately like income protection itself, Mr Lakey says the benefits of medical assistance being received as part of your income protection policy only become readily apparent when you actually need to use this service.
However, for you and your client to assess the value of medical help being attached to the policy, Mr Lakey points out that Best Doctors and Red Arc offer many real life examples of how their services benefit clients.
Mr Lakey says: “Advisers and clients struggle with the concept and provision of income protection and it is often difficult to recommend a plan with ‘extras’ if a cheaper vanilla alternative is available.
“Specialist advisers will be aware of the subtle differences and will be able to have meaningful discussions with their clients regarding the age-old dilemma of benefits versus cost.”
However Christine Husband, managing director of Red Arc, says comparing different income protection policies with medical assistance added on is difficult.
She says even the best advice portals and websites do not make comparison of income protection policies with these features easy.
Ms Husband says: “Some don’t mention added value services at all and those that do often have unclear headings.
“This is a great frustration to me. Insurers that have chosen to invest in added value are not given credit for this. Comparison and quote sites providers seem obsessed purely with premiums and claims statistics.”
In terms of advisers calculating the value of these services, Ms Husband says the Red Arc personal nurse adviser has been rated as 97 per cent good to excellent for three years running and 96 per cent say that the service improves their view of the carrying insurer.
According to a paper from Macmillan, around half (53 per cent) of people living with cancer have one or more moderate or severe unmet needs such as depression, anxiety or tiredness, six months after the end of treatment.
Ms Husband highlights that with Bright Grey people would pay £4.52 a month to get Red Arc’s value-added service that offers this emotional support.
