Offering support in life's most vulnerable health moments
Supplemental benefits help provide financial support for employees when unexpected accidents, hospital stays or critical illnesses occur.
Among the one-third of employees whose health care costs increased in the past year, 4 in 10 had difficulty paying basic expenses — and half decreased retirement contributions, delayed seeing a doctor, increased credit card debt or used up savings.1 With the average employer-sponsored health insurance reaching $17,496 per employee in 20252 and more workers enrolling in high deductible health plans, the coverage gap between what employees owe and what they can afford is growing.
What supplemental health plans do
Supplemental health plans provide upfront financial protection that employees can use however they want: to cover deductibles and coinsurance, replace lost wages or pay for daily living expenses. Benefits are paid directly to employees after a covered injury or qualifying health event, with no deductible and no health questions required.
These 3 core plans address the most common financial shocks. At UnitedHealthcare:
- Accident Protection coverage has been expanded to cover over 100 common injuries and services, from emergency treatment and hospital care to organized sports injuries and follow-up care. With about 54.5M Americans requiring medical attention for injuries in 2024,3 even employees with health insurance can face thousands in out-of-pocket costs.
- Critical Illness Protection pays a lump-sum benefit after diagnosis of covered conditions like heart attack, cancer and stroke. This is important since nearly half of U.S. adults have some sort of cardiovascular disease,4 while 1 in 3 people are affected by cancer.5 With more than 27 newly added covered conditions — including advanced invasive cancer, mental health conditions, diabetes and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — this benefit now offers even broader protection.
- Hospital Indemnity provides financial support for hospital admission, ICU stays, surgery, rehabilitation therapy and observation — which is critical when a 3-day hospital stay averages $30,000.6 Recently, this benefit has been expanded to include coverage for routine newborn stays and confinement due to mental health and substance use.
Automation eliminates claims frustration
Here's what makes UnitedHealthcare Supplemental Health plans operationally different: Benefit Assist® uses integrated claims data to automatically identify and initiate supplemental claims when employers bundle medical and supplemental health coverage. Benefit Assist initiated 90% of supplemental health claims,7 eliminating the manual paperwork that prevents employees from accessing benefits they've paid for.
This automation works across all 3 supplemental plans — Accident Protection, Critical Illness Protection and Hospital Indemnity — turning benefits from a filing burden into seamless financial support.
Plus, all UnitedHealthcare Supplemental Health products now offer an enhanced wellness benefit that provides access to 41 covered screenings and tests across all product lines. This expansion ensures employees have comprehensive protection that extends beyond illness treatment to include preventive care that can help detect health issues early.
The bundling advantage
When medical and supplemental plans come from the same carrier, like UnitedHealthcare, employers gain:
- Faster claims processing through integrated data that automatically triggers supplemental reimbursements
- Lower total costs through Packaged Savings® that can reduce medical plan expenses
- Simpler administration with UnitedHealthcare Benefit Ally®, which integrates eligibility, claims and billing across up to 3 supplemental plans alongside medical coverage
- Flexible funding options from fully employer-paid to voluntary to base/buy-up structures
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