BUPA

I work for a private practice in London and it is my job to liaise with insurance companies to determine whether our patients are covered for various procedures, consultations and operations. I also deal with the undesirable phenomenon known as "shortfalling" which I will explain later. Having spoken to BUPA and other insurance companies on a daily basis for the last six months, I would like to share my knowledge and experience of BUPA. GETTING THROUGH ----------------------------- I am not a policyholder of BUPA's and only call the claims helpline. This is LO-CALL number: 0845-7553333 based ... more

Many years ago when I lived in London a friend suffered a nasty double fracture of their leg, not exactly life threatening but not exactly pain free and as a result then ended up in a London hospital, when I went to visit I was shocked to find that they had spent the first eight hours of their stay on a trolley in a corridor, now it was a Saturday night and very busy but the care they got over the next couple of days was not exactly great either, that Monday I returned to work and signed up for the companies BUPA policy which was at a 50% reduced rate and I have been a customer off and on ever ... more

I have always been very skeptical of private health care policies and Bupa is probably about as big as they come in the sense of customers and facilities available for their customers. Everyone who works in this country pays their stamp and therefore pays for NHS treatment should you need it but the reality of it in the real world is that although if you are in urgent and life threatening need of treatment you will get it but otherwise you could be waiting years. I have always thought right up until 3 years ago that the good old NHS will look after me I pay my taxes for it and I sure as hell ... more

We have held a family BUPA health insurance for the last 10 years, but in light of recent developments, I am about to make a move away from this insurer for the following reasons: 1. Our health insurance premiums rise each year by an amount that massively outstrips inflation. Okay, I realise that as we age, we become a greater health risk to insure, but I feel that the increases go beyond this. 2. BUPA have recently claimed that the cost of providing cover is increasing. They claim that they need to curb costs. They are doing this in the following way: Introducing an "open referral" system ... more

In a very few industries you get one organisation which becomes to all intents and purposes synonymous with the product involved such that the name of that organisation comes to mean the same thing as the product, entrenched in people's minds as the product. Hoover is the most obvious example, being shorthand for the vacuum cleaner. Another example is BUPA, where for many people the word means private medical insurance (PMI) and there is nobody else involved. Usually, the organisation gets to be that way because of high product quality, exceptional customer service or simply being the best at ... more