Members will be treated on NHS...unless a treatment is not available

Bupa is offering large corporate clients the opportunity to select a new form of cancer cover under which members will be funded for diagnostic tests and consultations but undergo treatment on the NHS. If the member's consultant recommends treatment that is not available through the NHS, they can be treated privately.

NHS Cancer Cover Plus, available to customers of Corporate Select health insurance, is an alternative to Bupa's comprehensive cancer cover option (which funds all private treatment, including palliative treatment) and the option to exclude cancer cover altogether, once it has been diagnosed.

In March, Bupa removed another option which enabled corporate clients to place an overall annual maximum benefit limit on cancer cover. At the time, the insurer said such limits resulted in a poor customer experience and that is had developed "better, fairer" ways of controlling healthcare costs.

Tony Wood, sales director of Bupa Health and Wellbeing, said today that the insurer had "a product to suit every healthcare budget".

In the wake of concerns from consultancy Mercer that insurers need to provide more clarity about cancer cover, Bupa has recently published a Cancer Promise outlining the principles of its cover. This includes a focus on the provision of cover for palliative care and the warning that "some insurers only pay for primary treatment".

Bupa’s Cancer Promise can be found at www.bupa.co.uk/int-cancer-promise.