Information for employers
during coronavirus (COVID-19)
Our guide to employee and business wellbeing, with information about how to access your Bupa products and services during the pandemic
Support for you and your people during the pandemic
Constantly changing tiers and alert levels, and moving in and out of lockdowns, can be confusing and stressful for businesses and their employees alike. Many are working from home, while others may be anxious about how safe it is to be at work.
This can take its toll across the business, especially on mental health. So we offer a wide range of support to help you and your people deal with the pandemic. This ranges from online occupational health assessments to temperature-checking for every individual, COVID-19 testing, and mental health support.
Download our helpful coronavirus guides for businesses
A guide to how we’re supporting you
This simple guide offers a helpful way for your employees to see all the services available to them and their family as part of their healthcare scheme.
A guide to working from home
Many people are still working from home all the time, while some will keep doing so (at least some of the time) well into the future. But it has its challenges, so here are our tips for all-round wellness at home. There’s advice for managers, too.
A guide to bereavement
You may be facing higher rates of bereavement amongst colleagues, and perhaps even handling it for the first time as a manager. Here’s our practical guide to supporting any colleagues or the wider team who may be dealing with grief.
Mental health and wellbeing: in the workplace and at home
Information, advice, support and signposting for all ages on a wide range of mental health conditions
Workplace mental health support for managers
Find out how to check for signs of poor mental health among the teams you manage, improve their wellbeing, and support those with mental health problems.
Our workplace wellbeing hub
If you’re struggling with your mental health, perhaps with stress or anxiety, you can turn to us for help − whether you have mental health cover with us or not.
Bupa’s pledge to our UK health insurance customers during the coronavirus pandemic
Our Bupa UK Insurance CEO, Alex Perry, has pledged a range of measures to help our customers during this period. These include new and expanded services, rebates, support for customers hospitalised with COVID-19, and more.
Frequently asked questions
For businesses that have people working remotely, Bupa From Home offers a wide range of health support and services for your team to access from home:
- Video-chat with a GP: Digital GP service† (provided by Babylon) comes with an app that also includes a symptom checker for a wide range of conditions, including COVID-19.
- Talk to a nurse 24/7: You can call the Anytime HealthLine on 0345 601 3216^ for general health and wellbeing advice. Lines are open and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- Talk to a consultant: All Bupa-recognised consultants now offer telephone and/or video consultations, where medically appropriate. Some consultants are not yet set up for video, but all are available by phone.
- Talk to a physiotherapist: If you have a muscle, bone or joint condition, Bupa-recognised physiotherapists are available by telephone or video.
- Dental services: If you provide dental cover, we offer a range of routine and emergency dental services from home during this COVID period.
- Support for mental health and wellbeing: We know this is a very difficult time, so we’re expanding our mental health support. If your policies include mental health cover, you now have the option of consultations with Bupa-recognised therapists by phone or video. We’re also offering online cognitive behavioural therapy. Call our Direct Access team†† on 0345 609 0111^ and they could refer you to a specialist, usually without your needing to see a GP first. Plus, there’s information and advice in our mental health hub. Meanwhile, anyone concerned about a child’s mental health can call our Family Mental HealthLine on 0345 266 7938^, where our mental health nurses and advisers can offer support from 8am until 6pm, Monday to Friday.
†Customers who live in the Isle of Man do not have access to Digital GP provided by Babylon but can access GP24 provided by HealthHero. Some corporate schemes don't include access to Digital GP or GP24, please check your scheme documents or give us a call.
∧Calls may be recorded and, to maintain the quality of our Bupa Anytime HealthLine and Family Mental HealthLine services, a nursing manager may monitor some calls, always respecting the confidentiality of the call.
††Direct Access telephone services are available for symptoms covered by the policy. If that policy excludes pre-existing conditions, we’ll ask for evidence from a GP that those symptoms did not pre-exist for up to two years prior to the policy’s start-date (or five years for mental health) before referral to a consultant through our Direct Access service. Always call us first to check eligibility.
Bupa Anytime HealthLine, Digital GP and Family Mental HealthLine are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority or the Prudential Regulation Authority.
Many of our business customers have access to the Digital GP service† provided by Babylon††), so talk to your account manager if you’re not sure whether it’s included in your cover.
Digital GP is a 24/7 app-based service which is fast, convenient and confidential. It includes phone or video appointments (usually within 24 hours, and often sooner), a symptom checker in the app, and a delivery/collection service for prescriptions. Please see the Digital GP page for more information.
†Customers who live in the Isle of Man do not have access to Digital GP provided by Babylon but can access GP24 provided by HealthHero. Some corporate schemes don't include access to Digital GP or GP24, please check your scheme documents or give us a call.
†† Digital GP services are provided by Babylon Healthcare Services Limited. Registered in England and Wales No. 09229684. Registered office: 60 Sloane Avenue, London SW3 3DD. Digital GP is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority or the Prudential Regulation Authority.
We’ve been working hard to add new services, and adapt existing ones, so we can continue to meet your needs at this time. These updates are always posted in our newsroom.
Yes, we’re continuing to take calls as usual. We know this is a stressful time for many, which can affect overall mental wellbeing or make mental health conditions feel worse. So we’re continuing to offer Healthy Minds throughout the pandemic. If you’d like to share information about this service with your employees, please talk to your account manager who can also provide support materials.
We’re also offering remote consultations. We’ll fund telephone and video calls with all Bupa-recognised consultants, where medically appropriate and where the technology is available, to help keep patients safe.
We’re providing our team with all the necessary training, guidance and advice based on the latest information from the national public health agencies. If your employees are showing symptoms of COVID-19, the team will also provide guidance and signposting to the World Health Organisation and NHS Choices websites.
We are continually working to bring you coronavirus testing services. The situation is evolving all the time, so please check with us regularly.
We now offer a range of COVID-19 testing to look for current infection, including:
- polymerase chain reaction (PCR) home testing kits
- Rapid antigen testing with lateral flow devices (which gives a result within 30 minutes). These cannot be purchased as one-off tests but are designed to be used as part of an asymptomatic corporate screening programme.
COVID-19 testing could be a helpful addition to your return to work strategy. Please refer to COVID-19 testing for businesses, and there’s more about testing for the coronavirus on our general FAQs page.
Selected Bupa health centres also offer rapid COVID-19 antibody testing, which in 15 minutes could let you know if you have detectable antibodies to COVID-19. If you do, it would suggest you’ve previously been infected with COVID-19. The test cannot confirm when you had it or how long any antibodies may last.
At this time, the national focus is on ensuring that the coronavirus vaccine is provided first to those who are most in need. That’s why, currently, vaccination is only being done by the NHS. We’re working closely with our suppliers, so when the time is right we plan to offer the vaccine to our corporate customers – just as we do already with the flu vaccine.
Yes, we can offer a range of options to help you implement a safe return-to-work strategy. These could include online health assessments, temperature checks, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) home testing kits and COVID-19 screening with lateral flow tests. More about COVID-19 support for businesses.
Pre-authorisation and treatment
Learn more about how COVID-19 has affected pre-authorisation and treatment
Our health centres
Learn about how COVID-19 has affected our health centres and what to expect
For more general questions about how we’re responding to the coronavirus:
Expert advice and tips from our COVID-19 articles and videos
We understand that employers have a lot to think about right now, so we’ve created a series of short videos to help you stay on top of a range of practical challenges.
To protect everyone, the way you access our products and services has changed.
Health insurance
Here’s how to talk to our nurses, doctors, specialists and more.
Cash plans
Hospital treatments, dental care, physiotherapy and health checks.
Travel insurance
What are you covered for, and what do you need to do before claiming?
Dental services
We’ve adapted our services to ensure you get the help you need.
Health centres
Our centres are still open, thanks to our COVID safety measures.
Care homes
How are we keeping your loved ones safe, and what about visiting?
Essential sources of up-to-date information
The situation around COVID-19 changes continually. For up-to-date information and guidance for employers and businesses, please check Working Safely During Coronavirus (COVID-19), published by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.
Public Health England provides guidance for how to clean your workplace, including which cleaning fluids to use. Please visit COVID-19: cleaning in non-healthcare settings outside the home. This includes advice for if you’ve had a confirmed case of the coronavirus on your premises .
The very latest information, advice and guidance is also available from the following websites:
World Health OrganizationStatistics, situation reports, myth-busting, vaccine news and much more from the WHO’s coronavirus hub.
Gov.uk − Coronavirus (COVID‑19)The government’s coronavirus hub, with the latest facts and figures, announcements, advice and guidance − including for businesses.
Gov.uk − Travel informationTravel advice and checklists, consular help, country guides and more from the UK government.
Have a query about your cover with us?
For small business cover
(2-249 employees)
If your business already has health cover with Bupa and you have a query, please contact us. We’re here to help.
Email usFor corporate business cover
(250+ employees)
Your account manager will help you with any queries about your health cover for employees,
Find out moreFor health services customers
Call 0345 600 3476 and select option 2
Lines are open on Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm. We may record or monitor calls.
Bupa health insurance, dental insurance, cash plan and travel insurance are provided by Bupa Insurance Limited. Registered in England and Wales No.3956433. Bupa Insurance Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Arranged and administered by Bupa Insurance Services Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales No. 3829851. Bupa Health Assessments and Occupational Health services are provided by Bupa Occupational Health Limited. Registered in England and Wales No.631336. Registered office: 1 Angel Court, London, EC2R 7HJ.
Bupa Health Assessments are provided by Bupa Occupational Health Limited. Registered in England and Wales No. 631336. Registered office: 1 Angel Court, London, EC2R 7HJ
Bupa health trusts are administered by Bupa Insurance Services Limited. Registered in England and Wales No. 3829851 Registered office: 1 Angel Court, London EC2R 7HJ.
