AXA PPP Healthcare is a part of the AXA Group, a global insurances business headquartered in Paris.
AXA PPP Healthcare was created when AXA bought Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance(GRE), though it subsequently sold the other parts of GRE to Aegon. The company also owns the online insurer Swiftcover.
AXA PPP Healthcare is one of the largest, most experienced, health insurance providers in the UK with an annual pay out of just under £700m in healthcare every year. Around 2 million people are covered by an AXA PPP Health Insurance policy.
AXA PPP provide access to a network of over 250 hospitals and almost 400 scanning centres.
Contact Details
Phillips House
Crescent Road
Tunbridge Wells
Kent
TN1 2PL
UK
Tel: 0845 600 6722
History
AXA PPP healthcare have been helping people to access the medical care they need for nearly 70 years. Here are the major events that have shaped their history:
1938 – 1940
AXA PPP healthcare, or the London Association for Hospital Services as it was first known, was conceived in 1938 as a health insurance scheme for middle income earners in London. With support from the Royal Medical Colleges, the British Medical Association and the King’s Fund, the company was incorporated in 1940.
1941 – 1960
In 1943 they launched theoir Hospital Service Plan, costing two pounds twelve shillings a year. In its first year it attracted 3,100 members from the London region.
Membership was extended to the rest of the UK in 1950 and by 1960 we had 121,000 members.
1961 – 1971
To reflect the national focus they changed their trading name in 1962 to Private Patients Plan. By 1970 the member-base had grown to 367,000.
1971 – 1990
In the 1970s and 1980s they launched a number of groundbreaking initiatives. These included:
* Family Masterplan, the first medical insurance plan to include private healthcare for the whole family.
* Private Hospital Plan, a low cost plan that made medical insurance an option for millions of new customers.
* Retirement Health Plan, the first private medical insurance scheme for the over 60s.
By 1990 1.79 million people were members.
1991 – 1997
In 1993 they acquired the UK’s largest private dental cover service, Denplan. They also continued to develop their business, launching thier 24-hour customer health information service, Health at Hand and our employee assistance programme, Employee Support.
They also introduced our hospital network in 1997.
1998
In 1998 they were acquired by Guardian Royal Exchange, which was itself acquired the following year by Sun Life & Provincial Holdings, part of the AXA Group.
They were also on the acquisition trail, buying the UK’s leading provider of occupational health services, Medical Industrial Services (MIS) Ltd, which was rebranded AXA PPP healthcare Occupational Health Services in 2003.
More product innovations were launched too. In 1998, they launched Back to Health, a corporate scheme aimed at lowering the cost of sickness absence and in 2001 they launched CommonSense, a packaged health and safety and occupational health product.
2002 onwards
To reflect their new ownership, we were renamed AXA PPP healthcare in 2002. The last few years have seen the launch of many other products including:
* Recovery, a medical plan covering treatment following a road traffic accident
* CashBack, our cash plan product
* Essential Health Cover, a cancer, heart and stroke medical plan
* Independent Health Cover (IHC), a plan specifically for sole traders
* Health Cover and Health Cover Plus, a No Claims Discount (NCD) product for individuals
* Retirement Essentials, a low cost plan for the over 55’s
* A health and wellbeing suite of products and services to support organisations interested in the health and welfare of their most important assets – their people!
2007 saw the acquisition of ICAS International Holdings – leading provider of employee assistance programmes (EAPs) and well-being services.
Over 2 million people now enjoy membership with AXA PPP healthcare.