Employee Benefits

The costs of insurance can fluctuate depending on a variety of factors — the level of risk associated with the employees you want to insure, rising healthcare costs, advancements in medical technology and treatments, changes in our Malaysian laws and regulations, and even changes in management and marketing strategies of insurance companies.

What this all means to you as an employer? The price tag of your employee benefits insurance can change and fluctuate from year to year, and is always different between insurers!

Without regularly checking out what's available and what has changed on the market, you could lose out on monetary savings and/or better benefits that you could be offering to retain quality employees and entice new talents.

A successful switch to a new insurer will honour all your previous benefits and terms and conditions that you had with your previous employee benefits insurer.

And there will not be a waiting period to go through again as your organisation transitions to the new employee benefits insurance plan.

So, don't worry! Your employees will not go a day without protection during the change. Things will continue as is with your new insurer right away.

An employee benefits insurance is a health insurance plan an employer can provide to an employee to lighten the burden of the employee (or their loved ones) in the event of said employee's health crisis, such as an illness, accident or even death.

It is an essential tool used by many companies in Malaysia to retain employees and attract new talents.

From our experience, most employers in Malaysia look to obtain an employee benefits insurance plan mainly for Group Hospitalisation & Surgical (GHS) coverage.

Other than GHS, outpatient general practitioner care, outpatient specialist care, and life insurance are some of the more popular coverages.

With that said — the matter of fact is — we have observed a variety of focuses among our corporate clients when it comes to coverages they choose to prioritise. It all depends on the actual needs and preferences of your employees, as well as your overall recruitment and employee benefits strategies.

If you think you could use our professional opinion, we'd be happy to discuss your unique needs with you.

Employee benefits insurances are highly customisable. While it's true some insurers offer more customisability than others, over 90% of them offer incredibly flexible options.

As a result, you as an employer have the ultimate flexibility to tailor your insurance offerings to meet the unique needs of your workforce and your budgetary goals.

This means that you can select, include or exclude the types of coverage you want to offer, such as hospitalisation & surgical benefits, life insurance, etc., and choose the level of coverage that best suits your employees (to name a couple examples: the maximum amount they can claim per year for hospitalisation, the sum of cash payout to an employee's family in the event of the employee's demise).

As you increase or decrease the level of each coverage (or even completely forgo certain coverages), the costs will go up or down — which is where we come in to make sure you strike a balance between your budget and the needs and preferences of your employees.

As an employee benefits insurance specialist, we will be able to advise according to your goals and needs as an employer, and negotiate with different insurance companies on your behalf to get you the best offer.

A few standard waiting periods will apply, such as:

• 30 days of waiting period in general
• 120 days of waiting period for specified illnesses**

Certain insurers may also require a 12-month waiting period for an employee's pre-existing illness.

**Specified illnesses include medical conditions like hypertension, diabetes, heart diseases, tumors, cancers, cysts, stones, ear, nose, throat conditions, female reproductive system diseases, etc.

If you are insuring 10 or more employees, almost all insurers do not require your employees to go through a personal health declaration, nor a medical examination in order to get protected by an employee benefits insurance — which makes for a quicker process for you and your employees.

Even if you have less headcount to insure (as few as 3 employees), there are still great options available, just not as many.

Whatever your case may be, we can help! Contact us now to discover your best options.