Last year HMRC revealed the North West is home to more than 13,000 exporters with exported goods worth £28.8bn in 2017, up 3.6% year on year.
With exports on the rise it’s highly likely that you will have employees travelling overseas to deal with suppliers, have meetings with foreign partners, potentially set up offices in other countries, with some taking their families with them if their arrangement is more long-term.
Many employers may not be aware that they have a duty of care to their employees when sending them overseas to work, and this may include contractors and family members.With the geopolitical landscape continually changing, each business needs to understand and take responsibility for any risk to their staff as well as their families, and particularly their health.
Healthcare varies considerably between countries, so for example health protection laws in one Middle East country may be completely different to that in another country in the same region. There are some countries where the health service is autonomous and there is no set agreement that treatment would be readily available for UK Nationals to be covered under their Health Service should they fall ill. There are also language barriers makingit difficult to understand complex health issues and potentially leading to a misdiagnosis.
It can also prove very costly for your organisation if your employees become ill or require emergency medical treatment when they’re working abroad.Having health protection in place can avoid the expense of staff being absent for long periods or expensive hospital treatment.
For employees who are stationed abroad for any period of time, a simple travel insurance policy will not be adequate and will only cover emergency medical expenses, whereas International Private Medical Insurance (IPMI) covers routine medical conditions, so that whilst someone is away from home they still have access to treatment quickly so can return to work or normal daily living speedily by using the policy.
It’s so important for employees to have the reassurance that they can be treated under bespoke health insurance policies should they fall ill whilst away from home or require any emergency treatment.
For any business that doesn’t currently have medical insurance for employees travelling overseas or that want to review their existing policies, contact independent health insurance specialists Nugent Santé.
