Wellness benefits are a commonly offered optional benefit with today’s voluntary products.

AVON, CONNECTICUT, USA (January 10, 2016)

Of the 22 carriers participating in a recent Eastbridge survey, most offer a wellness benefit as an optional rider rather than a built-in benefit to one or more voluntary products. All offer a critical illness product with a wellness benefit, while most also offer it with an accident product. Wellness benefits are less common with hospital indemnity/supplemental medical, cancer and disability coverage.

Other key findings from the Voluntary Wellness Benefits study include:

• Most of the participating carriers offer a range of wellness benefit amounts and options, with the amounts often varying by product type. For example, the maximum benefit for accident and hospital indemnity/supplemental products is lower than for critical illness and cancer products.
• When multiple products with wellness benefits are owned, most of the carriers allow an insured to collect the benefits on each one, and there is typically no aggregate maximum across multiple product lines.
• All but one of the participating carriers offer wellness benefits for spouses and/or dependents. However, three carriers specified that children are not eligible for a wellness benefit even though they provide this benefit to spouses.

Eastbridge Consulting Group, Inc. is a marketing advisory firm serving insurance and financial services organizations in the United States and Canada.