How health cash plans can support gender-related health

This blog post is written by Ed Watling, Mattioli Woods. Mattioli Woods are kindly sponsoring the Wellbeing Champions Lunch 2025

In our September 2024 EB bulletin, we highlighted that employers must now consider making reasonable adjustments for menopausal workers. This followed new guidance issued in February 2024 by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which highlights the necessity for workplaces to make reasonable adjustments in relation to menopause to prevent discrimination. This guidance recognises menopause symptoms as a potential disability under the Equality Act 2010.

This article considers insurance policies known as health cash plans, which are low-cost arrangements employers can put in place for their workers to assist with employee engagement and basic everyday health needs.

Background

Health cash plans have been rising in popularity in recent years due to many factors, which include:

• the desire by employers to provide some health maintenance support for employees without stretching to a price-prohibitive private healthcare scheme
• the impact of the rising cost of living, leading employers to find ways to provide employees with access to cash for regular healthcare needs such as dental or optical funds up to certain limits
• GP practices struggling to provide frontline care, particularly in larger cities – health cash plans provide access to online GP support as well as counselling services

With greater focus on supporting a broader demographic of employees with diverse needs, some leading health cash plan providers are now helping fund or offer more specific support for gender-based issues.

Support examples

There has been significant focus on supporting women entering into and progressing through the menopause.

Simplyhealth states, from their 2023 research, that 23% of working women have considered quitting their job due to the impact of menopause or menstrual symptoms at work.

As part of their contract, they offer up to 20% discount on more than 75 female hormones and menstruation products, helping workers with funding for these products at every life stage.

A number of the leading insurers offer supporting literature for employees and/or managers to help them understand and provide tools to be able to approach discussions relating to menopause.

Another insurer (BHSF) is offering a specialist training session and/or webinar to its clients, designed for all employees, irrespective of job role, age, or gender. The purpose of the course is to help workers understand and support colleagues experiencing the menopause.

The majority of leading health cash plan providers offer funding towards the cost of health assessments. These assessments can often include female-specific tests and scans such as mammograms, osteoporosis or an ovarian cancer risk test.

WPA has a specialist health cash plan style product specifically aimed at providing gender-based support at various life stages. Their product can provide funding for prevention tools such as health assessments through to assisting interventions for people suffering heavy periods, fertility and pregnancy, and other matters, as well as men’s health options such as bladder and prostate problems, as well as less well discussed issues such as erectile disfunction.

Several insurers provide health and wellbeing calendars, which include useful material for employers to use at specific times, such as national women’s and men’s health weeks. These act as important reminders to tailor communications to specific demographics in a workplace.

While there has been significant progress with support for women’s health from these contracts, options to help support men are increasing too. Test kits are offered at discounted prices through some of the health cash plan providers, or via a full health assessment, which can then be funded in part or in full by the health cash plan. Tests can potentially include male hormone and/or PSA (prostate-specific antigen) tests that could help identify any potential symptoms of risks to male health.

Considerations

1 Have you reviewed your company strategy recently in relation to supporting gender-based health in the workplace?
2 Are your current policies in line with the strategy and compliant with the latest legislation?
3 What support is already in place and offered via your existing arrangements?
4 Are there any gaps?

Making decisions regarding which benefits would best support your employee demographic can be complex, and the insurer options are evolving at a rapid rate.

If you would like to discuss this further, or require assistance to review your healthcare arrangements, please contact Thomas Martin at Mattioli Woods