Western Provident Association

Last updated
Western Provident Association
Company typeProvident Association based in the United Kingdom
Industry Health insurance
Founded1901
Headquarters Taunton, Somerset, UK
Key people
Nathan Irwin, Chief Executive
Number of employees
366 (2024)
Website www.wpa.org.uk

Western Provident Association (WPA) is a not-for-profit private medical insurance firm and provident association based in Taunton, Somerset, England. Its subsidiary, WPA Protocol Plc, administers corporate healthcare trusts. [1]

Contents

History

In 1901, a group of workers founded the Reading Work People's Voluntary Hospital Contributory Fund to cover the costs of health care for their members. In 1939, it merged with the Bristol Hospital Fund, and in 1949 it was renamed the Western Provident Association for Hospital and Nursing Home Services (WPA). [2] [3] In 1992, WPA moved from Bristol to a specially designed building in Taunton, Somerset.

WPA was an early participant in the market for private health insurance to supplement the UK National Health Service services, with WPA being the smallest player. [4] In the mid-1980s and early 1990's almost all private health insurance in the UK -- 96% in 1984 -- was provided by just three carriers including WPA. [5] [6]

WPA was described by the World Health Organization as a leader in the development of coinsurance, or "shared responsibility", policies, in which the patient pays a portion of the liability until an agreed limit. [7]

WPA vs. Norwich Union Healthcare

In 1997, Norwich Union staff falsely claimed over internal e-mails that WPA was insolvent. WPA sued for defamation. Norwich Union made a High Court apology and paid £450,000 in damages and costs to settle the case. [8] [9] This was a landmark case because it was the first time e-mail was admitted as evidence in a British court. [10]

Cancer Drugs and NHS Top-Up Controversy

In 2007, WPA launched a new insurance plan which provided a health "top-up", supplementing NHS treatment, including cancer drugs which the NHS had not approved for use. [11] Subsequently, other insurance companies entered the top-up market, leading to criticism has been levelled, including from the union Unison, which stated that the products would undermine the values of the NHS and risk creating a two-tier system in health care. [12] The NHS attempted at the time to levy additional charges to patients receiving such benefits, and WPA claimed to have received legal advice saying such payments were unlawful. [13] [14] [15]

WPA Protocol Subsidiary

WPA also administers corporate healthcare trusts under the WPA Protocol Plc subsidiary. [16] This is an alternative arrangement to private medical insurance whereby larger companies, defined by Protocol as usually those with 400 or more members, can use WPA's infrastructure to administer their own healthcare provision. Companies provide the funds from a trust, and WPA Protocol provides bespoke literature and telephone lines, [17] as well as staff, infrastructure and economies of scale.

Trusts are not charged insurance premium tax and staff are considered to be more likely to claim responsibly from their own company as opposed to an insurer. Savings are estimated to be 7% compared to being fully insured. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Publicly funded health care</span> Form of health care financing

Publicly funded healthcare is a form of health care financing designed to meet the cost of all or most healthcare needs from a publicly managed fund. Usually this is under some form of democratic accountability, the right of access to which are set down in rules applying to the whole population contributing to the fund or receiving benefits from it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Healthcare industry</span> Economic sector focused on health

The healthcare industry is an aggregation and integration of sectors within the economic system that provides goods and services to treat patients with curative, preventive, rehabilitative, and palliative care. It encompasses the creation and commercialization of products and services conducive to the preservation and restoration of well-being. The contemporary healthcare sector comprises three fundamental facets, namely services, products, and finance. It can be further subdivided into numerous sectors and categories and relies on interdisciplinary teams of highly skilled professionals and paraprofessionals to address the healthcare requirements of both individuals and communities.

Health insurance or medical insurance is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among many individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health risk and health system expenses over the risk pool, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to provide the money to pay for the health care benefits specified in the insurance agreement. The benefit is administered by a central organization, such as a government agency, private business, or not-for-profit entity.

Single-payer healthcare is a type of universal healthcare in which the costs of essential healthcare for all residents are covered by a single public system.

Mark Douglas Britnell is an English business executive. He is a senior partner at the professional services firm KPMG and a global healthcare expert. He was the chairman and senior partner for healthcare, government and infrastructure at KPMG International until September 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weston General Hospital</span> NHS district hospital

Weston General Hospital is an NHS district general hospital in the town of Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, operated by University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. As of June 2019, the hospital had 261 beds and around 1,800 clinical and non-clinical staff. It has a part-time Accident & Emergency department, an intensive care unit, an oncology and haematology day unit, and a day case unit. The hospital also has a 12-bed private unit, The Waterside Suite, wholly owned by the hospital trust, with profits being re-invested into the main hospital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musgrove Park Hospital</span> Hospital in England

Musgrove Park Hospital is a large NHS hospital located in Taunton, Somerset, England, run by Somerset NHS Foundation Trust. Originally a US Army General Hospital during the Second World War, it became an NHS hospital in 1951.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Healthcare in the United Kingdom</span> Overview of healthcare in the United Kingdom

Healthcare in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter, with England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each having their own systems of publicly funded healthcare, funded by and accountable to separate governments and parliaments, together with smaller private sector and voluntary provision. As a result of each country having different policies and priorities, a variety of differences have developed between these systems since devolution.

Unwarranted variation in health care service delivery refers to medical practice pattern variation that cannot be explained by illness, medical need, or the dictates of evidence-based medicine. It is one of the causes of low value care often ignored by health systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Health Service (England)</span> Publicly-funded healthcare system in England

The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded healthcare system in England, and one of the four National Health Service systems in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest single-payer healthcare system in the world after the Brazilian Sistema Único de Saúde. Primarily funded by the government from general taxation, and overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care, the NHS provides healthcare to all legal English residents and residents from other regions of the UK, with most services free at the point of use for most people. The NHS also conducts research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Healthcare in England is mainly provided by the National Health Service (NHS), a public body that provides healthcare to all permanent residents in England, that is free at the point of use. The body is one of four forming the UK National Health Service as health is a devolved matter; there are differences with the provisions for healthcare elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and in England it is overseen by NHS England. Though the public system dominates healthcare provision in England, private health care and a wide variety of alternative and complementary treatments are available for those willing and able to pay.

A formulary is a list of pharmaceutical drugs, often decided upon by a group of people, for various reasons such as insurance coverage or use at a medical facility. Traditionally, a formulary contained a collection of formulas for the compounding and testing of medication. Today, the main function of a prescription formulary is to specify particular medications that are approved to be prescribed at a particular hospital, in a particular health system, or under a particular health insurance policy. The development of prescription formularies is based on evaluations of efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of drugs.

Karol Sikora is a British physician specialising in oncology, who has been described as a leading world authority on cancer. He was a founder and medical director of Rutherford Health, a company that provided proton therapy services, and is Director of Medical Oncology at the Bahamas Cancer Centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Cumberlege, Baroness Cumberlege</span>

Julia Frances Cumberlege, Baroness Cumberlege, is a British Conservative Party politician and businesswoman. She was created a life peer on 18 May 1990 as Baroness Cumberlege, of Newick in the County of East Sussex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumberland Infirmary</span> Hospital in Cumbria, England

Cumberland Infirmary is a hospital in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. It is managed by the North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spire Healthcare</span> British private healthcare company

Spire Healthcare Group plc is the second-largest provider of private healthcare in the United Kingdom. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Circle Health Group is a private healthcare provider in the United Kingdom, and is the country's biggest private hospital provider. The company was founded in 2004 and rebranded as Circle Health Group in 2019 after acquiring a rival, BMI Healthcare; in the same year it began an expansion in China. In 2023 the company was acquired by an Abu Dhabi-based holding company called PureHealth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Private healthcare in the United Kingdom</span>

Private healthcare in the UK, where universal state-funded healthcare is provided by the National Health Service, is a niche market.

The Global Digital Exemplar (GDE) programme is an NHS England initiative to achieve digital transformation in selected exemplar organisations and to create a knowledge sharing ecosystem to spread learning from these exemplars. The programme is to enable "digitally advanced" NHS trusts to share knowledge with other NHS trusts, specifically knowledge gained during the implementation of IT systems, and especially experience from introducing electronic health record (EHR) systems. The GDE project is expected to last two to three and a half years; with the most digitally advanced trusts on the shorter time scale.

References

  1. ↑ Mencher, Samuel (1968-10-15). British Private Medical Practice and the National Health Service. University of Pittsburgh Pre. ISBN   978-0-8229-7570-0.
  2. ↑ "Provident Association for Hospital and Additional Medical Services". The Lancet. 202 (5212): 137. 21 July 1923. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(01)37834-0. ISSN   0140-6736.
  3. ↑ Dodd, John (1957). The Story of the Western Provident Association for Hospital and Nursing Home Services, 1945-1956. Reprinted from the Bristol Chamber of Commerce Journal ; vol. xxxl. nos. 8,11,12, vol. xxxll. no.l. (1956-57). p. 16.
  4. ↑ Gray, C. (1980-04-05). "Private health insurance in Britain: public opting out of NHS". Canadian Medical Association Journal. 122 (7): 810–817. ISSN   0008-4409. PMC   1801881 . PMID   7363249.
  5. ↑ "Private medicine: the NHS's safety valve". British Medical Journal. 302 (6769): 164–165. 19 January 1991. doi:10.1136/bmj.302.6769.164. PMC   1668805 . PMID   1995139.
  6. ↑ Maynard, Alan (16 June 1984). "Private practice: answer or irrelevance?". British Medical Journal. 288 (6433): 1849–1851. doi:10.1136/bmj.288.6433.1849. PMC   1441868 . PMID   6428572.
  7. ↑ "Private Medical Insurance in the United Kingdom". World Health Organization. Archived from the original on May 31, 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-15.
  8. ↑ "Letting Go of E-mail". Information Age. Retrieved 2006-02-10.
  9. ↑ Langford-Wood, Naomi (1999). Successful use of e-mail in a week. Internet Archive. London : Hodder & Stoughton. p. 92. ISBN   978-0-340-73048-5.
  10. ↑ "Mail, News and More". Exeter University. Archived from the original on 2011-08-27. Retrieved 2010-06-15.
  11. ↑ Hawkes, Nigel (2024-04-09). "Insurance policy promises to supply the cancer drugs NHS will not pay for". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 2024-04-09.
  12. ↑ "Insurance firms eye top-up market". BBC News. 2008-11-07. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
  13. ↑ Priority setting: managing individual funding requests (PDF). NHS Confederation. 1 January 2008.
  14. ↑ Sikora, K.; James, N. (February 2009). "Top-up Payments in Cancer Care". Clinical Oncology. 21 (1): 1–5. doi:10.1016/j.clon.2008.11.002. ISSN   0936-6555. PMID   19038536.
  15. ↑ Top Up Fees: Written Evidence (PDF). UK House of Commons. 22 January 2009. p. 69.
  16. ↑ "Wpa Protocol PLC - Company Profile and News". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2024-04-10.
  17. 1 2 "DIY PMI". Health Insurance Magazine. Retrieved 2010-06-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.