Vitality Health insurance - can anyone explain to me how it works?

[KP86]

Our family is covered by Vitality through DH's work's corporate plan.

Is anyone here a member, and can you tell me how private health works in the UK vs. NHS (we are relatively new to the country, from Australia, if that helps).

In particular, I want to book dental appointments for both DS(2) and myself. I have a bad feeling that DS needs his front molars filled, or topped up, or whatever the term is as the grooves are pretty deep, and due to his front teeth not being straight we have great difficulty keeping them clean and I'm looking for general advice.

I am happy to be seen by our NHS GP for standard health care, but how does health insurance work when you need specialists or hospital care (other than emergency)?

I've been looking at the Vitality website but I'm no clearer - at least with our insurance at home I understood what we were eligible for and how to access the services if needed!

Thanks :)

It won't necessarily include dental cover. Most policies work by using nhs in first instance for routine care and to identify if and to whom to refer. Then you can opt to look for private by ringing the insurance company and asking if you are covered. They may require you to use a particular clinic/hospital and consultant. Even then an assessment or procedure may or may not be covered.

Thanks for that.

To give an example situation... if we are covered for dental and went to an NHS dentist to begin with, but they only offered the silver fillings, would the insurance pay the difference to have white ones put in instead? Or would they only pay if we were at a private dentist to begin with. It seems that you cannot mix NHS/private services here, unlike at home. The Vitality website says they pay up to £40/filling (assuming we have dental cover on our plan).

Obviously the best thing would be for me to call them directly but I was wondering if we've got any MNers with first hand experience in the meantime.