WELLESLEY, Mass., Sept. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sun Life U.S.
has added three COVID-19 insurance products to its stop-loss
offerings, including coverage for outbreaks, providing risk
protection for self-funded employers if employees become infected.
Sun Life research shows that employers are focused on keeping their
employees healthy while also concerned about the potential costs of
COVID-19 in the workplace. More than a quarter of employers would
consider benefits that provide additional protection against
COVID-19, according to brokers surveyed by Sun Life.
"The needs of our clients have evolved significantly over the
past six months," said Jen Collier,
senior vice president of Stop-Loss & Health for Sun Life U.S.
"These new solutions will allow our self-funded clients to stay
focused on creating a safe working environment for employees while
letting us provide more protection for higher than expected plan
costs associated with the diagnosis, testing, and treatment of
COVID-19. For employers that self-fund their own health plans,
these products provide meaningful coverage that offers financial
protection and also gives them continued peace of mind, allowing
them to focus on running their businesses during these challenging
times."
Stop-Loss insurance protects self-funded employers when they
encounter high-dollar medical claims or higher-than-expected
medical costs over the course of the year.
The new Sun Life Stop-Loss suite of COVID-19 coverages provides
employers who self-fund their health plans with options for
additional financial protection depending on their needs,
including:
- Outbreak coverage – If a certain number of employees test
positive for COVID-19, the employer receives a benefit payment for
eligible diagnosed employees once a pre-determined threshold has
been met.
- Specific benefit – If an employee receives a COVID-19 diagnosis
resulting in hospitalization costs that reach the employer's
stop-loss deductible, the benefit increases the amount of
reimbursement to the employer.
- Aggregate benefit – If the amount of claims for COVID-19 cause
health plan claims to exceed the employer's aggregate stop-loss
attachment point (the aggregate deductible), the attachment point
will be reduced, resulting in a larger reimbursement for the
employer.
Self-funded employers are eligible for Sun Life COVID-19
protection as long as they are using an approved workplace
monitoring program to help manage the return-to-work process,
maintain a safe workplace, and prevent the spread of the
disease.
The first approved program, Collective Go, is a comprehensive
COVID-19 screening, testing and monitoring solution developed by
Sun Life partner Collective Health. Collective Go™ offers an
evidence-based approach, with an adaptive scientific protocol
developed by in-house medical experts and reviewed by former FDA
Commissioners and researchers from leading academic and public
health institutions. The Collective Go™ Protocol identifies
external factors and determines a series of necessary measures
including frequency of testing, screening, and compliance
monitoring to help organizations reduce risk as employees return to
the workplace. With the easy-to-use Collective Go™ app,
workers complete a daily symptom and exposure checklist
and manage their COVID-19 testing. Those who pass the protocol
requirements receive Compliance Certificates.
In Sun Life's recent survey, brokers estimated that about 50
percent of their employer clients were considering implementing a
workplace monitoring program.
Since the start of the pandemic, Sun Life has swiftly introduced
innovative product features and services to meet the growing and
evolving needs of employer clients around the country, including
fully virtual benefits enrollment, COVID-19 coverage for critical
illness plans and COVID-19 compliance and regulatory expertise.
About Sun Life
Sun Life is a leading international financial services organization
providing insurance, wealth and asset management solutions to
individual and corporate Clients. Sun Life has operations in a
number of markets worldwide, including Canada, the United
States, the United Kingdom,
Ireland, Hong Kong, the
Philippines, Japan,
Indonesia, India, China,
Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of June 30,
2020, Sun Life had total assets under management of
C$1,122 billion. For more
information, please visit www.sunlife.com.
Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New
York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the
ticker symbol SLF.
In the United States, Sun Life
is one of the largest group benefits providers, serving more than
60,000 employers in small, medium and large workplaces across the
country. Sun Life's broad portfolio of insurance products and
services in the U.S. includes disability, absence management, life,
dental, vision, voluntary and medical stop-loss. Sun Life and its
affiliates in asset management businesses in the U.S. employ
approximately 5,500 people. Group insurance policies are issued by
Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (Wellesley
Hills, Mass.), except in New
York, where policies are issued by Sun Life and Health
Insurance Company (U.S.) (Lansing,
Mich.). For more information, please visit
www.sunlife.com/us.
Media contact:
Devon Fernald
Sun Life U.S.
781-800-3609
Devon.Portney.Fernald@sunlife.com
Connect with Sun Life U.S.
https://www.facebook.com/SLFUnitedStates
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sun-life-financial
https://twitter.com/SunLifeUS
View original content to download
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sun-life-launches-covid-19-outbreak-coverage-and-related-products-for-self-funded-employers-301134908.html
SOURCE Sun Life U.S.