Medical Access Insurance

The savings
Employees waiting for diagnostics and surgery can cost your organization money. Medical Access Insurance can lower the increased cost to benefit premiums caused when employees on surgical and treatment waitlists are unable to work. Rapid access to medical care also reduces employee absenteeism and allows company productivity to remain high.

Waitlists cost Canadian organizations
At any given time, 250,000 Canadians are receiving short (STD) and long-term disability (LTD) benefits. Employees waiting for medical care cost Canadian organizations billions of dollars a year in lost productivity while increasing benefit plan costs. Between 1990 and 2001 total disability income payments have almost doubled from $2.4 billion to $4.8 billion.¹

Case study - employee quality of life, employer savings
A 30-year-old labourer with Medical Access Insurance suffered a degenerative eye disease and required a corneal transplant. Transplant wait time was one to two years and could have resulted in a LTD claim; the employee was already on STD. In addition to LTD payments, estimated cost in lost labour for the organization was $23,348. Within seven weeks a tissue replacement was found and surgery completed. The procedure took place within the Canadian public health system.

The plan
Medical Access Insurance is an excellent supplement to an organization's existing benefit program. This unique group plan was developed by Acure Health and is administered by OneWorld Medicare. The following is the Medical Access Insurance plan overview.

• pre and post-surgery specialist consultation, diagnosis (i.e. MRI and CT scans) surgery for over 125 covered conditions and procedures covered, including: angioplasty - coronary artery repair, hip and knee replacement, prostate surgery
• no deductible or co-payment
• no medical underwriting, only a short medical questionnaire describing any pre-existing conditions
• pre-existing conditions covered after policy in effect 24 consecutive months
• treatment costs paid directly to the service provider

Medical Access Insurance is underwritten by Industrial-Alliance Pacific Life Insurance Company.

For more information, please contact Calvin Ball:
Toll-free in North America: 1-800-533-8718, ext. 3157
Direct: 604-231-3051
E-mail: cbal@oneworldmedicare.com

1 http://www.clhia.ca/e3s_2003.htm Submission to the House of Commons Sub-Committee on the Status of Persons with Disabilities: The Role of Disability Income Insurance Plans in Canada's Disability Income System (May 2003)