Panasonic has moved away from offering employees traditional private medical insurance and now provides staff with a healthcare trust scheme in the hope of reducing costs by 10%.

The arrangement, provided by Healix Healthcare Trusts, allows the electronics firm greater control of the cost of the scheme to ensure staff are all appropriately covered by their medical insurance. If the costs of the claims are lower than anticipated, the company can keep any money - rather than the insurer making an extra profit.

The scheme also allows the firm to decide when the fund will pay out.

Richard Mills, head of UK HR at Panasonic, said: "The change will deliver cost savings to Panasonic against our traditional corporate PMI scheme and our employees have commented on how impressed they have been, being able to speak to medical professionals on a helpline from the start of the process."