From the 1st January 2012 BUPA will be reducing the number of BMI Hospital which are available to its members, the reason according to BUPA is that Hospital costs account for around half of its members' premiums. Premiums have increased for its members by about 10 percent a year for most of the last decade, despite cutting its own costs and having no shareholders to pay.

Apparently BUPA have been in discussion with BMI for some time about the arrangements for Bupa members however from 1 January 2012 they have decided to remove 12 hospitals/facilities from its recognised hospital lists as they do not believe they represent good value for its members. These are:

• BMI Castle Consulting Centre
• BMI Coombe Wing
• BMI Edgbaston Hospital
• BMI Foscote Hospital
• BMI Gisburne Park Hospital
• BMI Lancaster Hospital
• BMI Meriden Hospital
• BMI Oxford Clinic
• BMI Runnymede Hospital
• BMI Sefton Hospital
• BMI Syon Clinic

There are three exceptions where BUPA will continue to fund treatment at these 12 hospitals/facilities after 1 January 2012:

1. cataract operations and related out-patient consultations, as its cataract network agreement remains in place with BMI until 15 April 2012
2. MRI scans, as its MRI network agreement remains in place with BMI until 31 October 2014
3. Oncology treatment where Bupa consultants do not have practising privileges at another private hospital and where its member has already had chemotherapy at the hospital between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2011 or has been referred for follow-up treatment by another consultant at the hospital and initial treatment has taken place before 31 December 2011.

We have posed a number of questions to BUPA regarding the implementation and as soon as we have any additional information we will let clients know.