The Farnham, Surrey-based company said it had made the changes, which take effect with its 2014 plans, in order to better accommodate its clients.
The announcement of the changes came days after Hartford, Connecticut-based, New York Stock Exchange-listed Aetna said it had agreed to acquire InterGlobal from a group led by InterGlobal's majority shareholder, Alchemy Partners. The price and other details of the acquisition, which is expected to close during the first half of 2014, were not disclosed, and InterGlobal officials declined to comment on the matter.
The changes to InterGlobal's UltraCare range include removing all previous benefit limits and excesses for cancer, as well as “significantly” increasing the overall plan limits. The increase means the maximum InterGlobal will pay on its UltraCare Comprehensive plan will more than double, to $4m, while also increasing all plan limits by between a little less than 50% and 135%, according to an outline of the changes unveiled on Friday.
The enhanced benefits are for new cancer conditions, and some cover restrictions may apply for pre-existing conditions, InterGlobal said.
Company executives said they also expect to be able to hold premium increases “to well below the level of medical inflation for the second year running”, which they are able to do by holding costs down.
Stephen A Hartigan, chief executive officer of InterGlobal, said the company had completely remodelled the way its policies are structured in order to make them simpler to understand and use, and to better provide the kind of coverage people want.
“For example, previously, if you bought a policy from us that had a limit of $2.5m – and that will now increase to $4m – we would provide cover for cancer, but there would be, in line with most other companies in the market, certain subjectivities to that,” such as a reduction in the amount that clients would receive in those situations in which their cancer had been diagnosed as either chronic or terminal.
“Now, these are not very pleasant discussions to have with customers,” Hartigan added. “So we just removed all those [subjectivities] and said, ‘you’re just covered’.”
Interglobal has also removed certain extra charges, the thinking being, Hartigan explained, that, “frankly, if we’re paying out $500,000 for serious leukaemia treatments, charging a $45 excess on a policy seemed pointless”.
Details of coverage
The improved cancer care benefits have been added to InterGlobal’s UltraCare Standard, Select, Comprehensive and Elite plans, which cover the costs of all in-patient, daycare, out-patient and palliative care, which will be paid in full up to overall plan limits of between $1.5m and $5m, Interglobal said.
Among the other improvements InterGlobal said it has made are a stripping away of limits on out-patient treatement received in the first 90 days following in-patient or daycare treatment, which will be paid in full. Full coverage has also been added for out-patient surgical procedures to the UltraCare Standard plan, while those covered by the UltraCare Elite plan will now receive coverage for a sight and hearing examination, as well as free worldwide travel insurance.
InterGlobal was founded in 1998, and provides private medical insurance to groups and individuals in key expat markets throughout the world. According to the Aetna announcement of its acquisition plans, InterGlobal has more than 65,000 clients worldwide, and employs approximately 300, based primarily in its operation centres in the UK, Dubai and Singapore.
It was named "International Private Medical Insurance Provider of the Year" for the past five years by the UK insurance magazine, Cover, the Aetna announcement noted.
For more information on InterGlobal's revamped UltraCare range, click here.
