Quite a few important topics have crossed my radar in the last 7 days, leading to something of a rash of posts on this blog. And every time I think I can get on with the day job, something else moves into view.

As if to prove this point, my pile of ‘things to post’ grew again today following my attendance at a rather good event on the subject of Group Risk (which is Group Life, Group Income Protection, and Group Critical Illness to those not up on industry jargon). The event was organised and delivered by Corporate Adviser Magazine.

The keynote speaker at the event was Dr Sayeed Khan, Chief Medical Adviser at the EEF. Dr Khan has been involved in many of the groupings helping to shape health-care policy in the UK (too numerous to mention here). An excellent speaker, he gave me much food for thought.

But whilst I digest the many points he made, there were a couple that seemed immediately relevant to the audience of this blog.

Tax Relief on Medical Benefits:

It was evident from Dr Khan’s statements that there was significant support for these proposals from some of the health groupings involved in lobbying Government. This was the first concrete statement I have heard from that quarter, and that additional support gives me hope that The Treasury may give such proposals genuine consideration at the next budget. We won’t have long to wait on that one I guess.

The Independent Assessment Service (IAS):

I asked Dr Khan if the IAS (see my post earlier this week for more details: http://goo.gl/KOA7f ) would make a significant difference to long term absence at smaller employers, given that any interventions identified by the IAS would need to be funded by the employer.

His answer, which somewhat surprised me, was that the IAS may in fact fund some of the treatments itself. This was certainly not evident in the Government’s response last week, but if true, would improve the effectiveness of such a service. Clearly the State is hoping that employers will pay for the treatments (Dr Khan made a good business case for doing just that incidentally), but if not, then it appears the Government may step in instead.

I doubt we will find out much more on this point for a little while yet, but will certainly report back when I know more.

Best regards

Steve