Here are the questions most often asked by our customers and those looking into private health insurance. These answers provide a summary only. To get a more comprehensive answer please contact us or refer to the Policy document.
Vitality is the idea behind what makes PruHealth so unique. It gives you the opportunity of being rewarded with lower premiums for making positive lifestyle changes, or if you're already leading a fairly healthy life, for just doing what you're already doing. It's a simple 4-stage process that works like this:
When you join PruHealth you'll automatically start on Bronze status. Once you have collected a certain number of points, you'll move up to the next level; Silver, then Gold, then with enough effort Platinum!
To increase your status you need to earn Vitality points. The more points you earn in a single policy year, the higher your status can become. The points required for each status level are as follows:
| Status | Single | Family (2+ adults) |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | 0 | 0 |
| Silver | 1,000 | 1,500 |
| Gold | 1,500 | 2,250 |
| Platinum | 2,000 | 3,000 |
You'll earn points for completing a range of Vitality activities offered by PruHealth like having a fitness assessment with one of our participating health and fitness club partners or getting a health screen. In fact, there are five main areas to concentrate on if you want to improve and maintain your health to earn Vitality points; Education, Nutrition, Not Smoking, Screening and Exercise.
We can collect your points from our Vitality partners. In some cases, you can submit them to us yourself.
We recognise a wide range of activities, such as screenings and checkups as well as different health and fitness activities. For a list of activities and the points awarded for each activity go to Vitality activities on this site.
If you take part in regular exercise to keep active outside one of our Vitality partners such as going to a gym, playing tennis or walking the dog, you can still earn points using Fitbug (pedometer) or through fitness assessments.
With a fitness assessment you will have your Body Mass Index, Blood Pressure and recovery heart rate evaluated and the extent of improvement between the two assessments determines the number of points you will earn.
You can earn points through Fitbug. By reaching your daily target and uploading your steps onto the Fitbug website, PruHealth could turn your daily achievements into Vitality points.
We support and encourage our members to stay healthy and look after themselves. We are always interested in what our customers are doing to improve their lifestyle and we want to make the Vitality programme all inclusive. We would value your comments, so please send us your feedback via contact us.
Once you've joined PruHealth, you can get a confidential, up-to-date points balance by simply logging into the Member Zone and viewing your Vitality Points Statement. You'll also be sent a quarterly statement showing your currents points total.
Vitality partners are business partners who offer specific health and wellbeing services and discount offers to PruHealth members. We subsidise many of these services to make them more affordable and to support any efforts made to look after yourself.
You can find your nearest hospital by downloading a copy of the hospital list.
In most instances your PruHealth policy will cover all the costs of eligible treatment. However, if you have chosen an excess you will need to pay this. An excess is the amount of money a member must contribute towards any treatment they have in a policy year. For further details, see Is a claims excess available?
All of our plans cover a variety of in-hospital treatments but the Comprehensive plan covers you for more than the Essential plan.
Health assessments or screens can normally range in cost from £25 to £400 depending on whether you opt for a questionnaire-based assessment or a full medical examination with tests.
PruHealth members can enjoy discounts from 40% for Bronze members up to 90% for Platinum members on these costs with leading health and wellbeing partners. You will also earn additional Vitality points for participating in these activities.
You have a range of screening locations available to you, depending on which screening partner you choose.
As a Bronze or Silver member, if your claims exceed your premium (the amount payable before any Vitality discounts or charges have been applied) you will have an additional charge of no more than 15% added to next year's premium (additional to medical and age inflation increases).
If you reach Gold or Platinum status you will not be subject to the 15% additional charge regardless of how much you claim within that year. Please note that the premium used for such a calculation is the amount payable before any Vitality discounts or charges.
If you make claims in a year that are less than the total premium you have paid (before any discounts given to you) we will give you a percentage of the difference towards next year's cost.
We call the difference the 'unclaimed premium' and the percentage that will go towards your renewal cost will depend on your Vitality status, so it could be 25%, 50%, 75% or even 100% of your unclaimed premium if you make the effort to increase your Vitality status through the year.
As well as benefiting from the best comprehensive cover plan in the UK and savings with our Vitality partners the main benefit to our members is through the Vitality programme where you will have the chance to reduce your premiums each year.
Your limit, or the amount of your medical bills PruHealth will pay for depends on the cover plan you've chosen, excess and the type of care you claim for. For example: on the Comprehensive plan you have no limit to the amount of physiotherapy you can claim, but there is an annual limit of £800 for chiropractic or osteopathic treatment.
There isn't a limit on the total amount that you can claim in any one year on any of our private medical insurance plans.
Yes, PruHealth offers members the opportunity to set their excess at £0, £100, £250, £500, and £1,000. Excesses apply per person covered under the PruHealth policy and relate to the total claims over a PruHealth policy year, not to each claim event. Excess only available on Essential and Comprehensive plans.
What this means is that you will pay the excess amount only once in a year. For example, if you need treatment that will cost £250 and you have £100 excess on your private medical insurance, you will pay £100 and PruHealth will pay £150.
If, later on in the policy year, you need an operation you will not need to pay £100 again and PruHealth will meet all eligible costs.
© Prudential Health Limited trading as PruHealth. All rights reserved.
PruHealth is a trading name of Prudential Health Limited and Prudential Health Services Limited which are registered in England and Wales. Registered office at Laurence Pountney Hill, London EC4R OHH. Registered numbers 5051253 and 5933141 respectively. Prudential Health Limited and Prudential Health Services Limited are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.