Engineering Consulting Firm

Transforming Employee Healthcare Through a Cost Optimised Business Health Insurance Strategy

Protecting your people. Strengthening your business.

A well-established engineering consulting firm based in Nottingham, supporting complex infrastructure and technical projects across the UK, recognised that their long-serving healthcare policy was no longer delivering best value. Despite strong internal growth and an experienced workforce, their private medical insurance had never been actively reviewed or bought to market, resulting in escalating costs driven by claims experience. With rising renewal pressures and limited insurer engagement as a direct client, the business saw an opportunity to reassess their approach. The objective was to retain high-quality healthcare benefits for employees while significantly improving cost efficiency and long-term sustainability of the scheme.

The Challenge

The Challenge

The client had held a healthcare policy in place for over 10 years, arranged directly with the insurer and without broker support. Over time, the scheme had become increasingly expensive due to claims experience, and renewal increases were beginning to make the policy less sustainable for the business.

Key challenges included:

No prior market benchmarking or competitive review of the policy
Above market renewal pressure driven by claims experience
Lack of negotiating leverage due to a direct insurer relationship
Limited visibility of alternative pricing or structures in the wider market
Risk of escalating costs becoming difficult to justify long-term

Our Approach

We were engaged to review the existing arrangement and identify whether a more competitive outcome could be achieved through a full market assessment.

Market Benchmarking & Insight

We began by analysing the policy against wider UK market data. Typical healthcare insurance increases across the market sit between 15 to 22%, while our managed portfolio averages increase of approximately 8 to 9% through proactive broking and negotiation.

This highlighted that the client’s long-term renewal position was increasingly misaligned with broader market performance.

Strategic Market Review

Using our insurer relationships and competitive benchmarking data, we conducted a full review of available options and created leverage in the renewal process.

During this stage, the incumbent insurer responded with a conditional 6 to 7% discount in an attempt to retain the business without a full market exercise.

Client Recommendation

Based on our analysis, we advised the client that we were confident a more competitive outcome could be achieved by going to market. The client agreed to proceed based on our recommendation and long standing trust in our advice.

Competitive Negotiation

We took the policy to market and used the resulting competitive tension, alongside our data-led positioning, to drive improved terms from insurers.

The Outcome

We successfully secured a 16% reduction in renewal terms with the existing insurer, while maintaining the client’s full level of benefits.

This delivered a significantly improved result compared to both:

The original renewal position
The insurer’s pre market discount offers of 6 to 7%

The client achieved enhanced value without any reduction in cover or service.

Key Takeaway

A proactive broker-led approach creates measurable value beyond pricing alone. Through market visibility, structured negotiation, and data led benchmarking, businesses can achieve materially stronger outcomes than those available through direct insurer relationships.

The Results

The outcome of the review delivered a 16% reduction in the overall renewal premium while maintaining the client’s full existing benefits and cover structure, with no reduction in service or protection. This represented a materially stronger result than the insurer’s initial 6 to 7% retention offer and demonstrated the value of taking the policy to market.

In addition to the immediate cost savings, the process improved the long-term sustainability of the healthcare scheme by bringing it back in line with broader market benchmarks. It also provided the client with greater pricing transparency and strengthened their negotiating position for future renewals, establishing a clearer understanding of their market position moving forward.