Company health insurance (bKV)

Additional health coverage through the employer.

What is company health insurance?

Company health insurance (bKV) is an employee benefit in which the employer covers all or part of the cost of private supplementary health insurance. According to Deutsche Rentenversicherung (German pension insurance), the term bKV is used when the expenses for employees' private supplementary health insurance are covered; typically, this involves services that are not part of the regular scope of statutory or private health insurance, such as preventive care, vision aids, additional hospital services, or dental services. Which components are specifically included always depends on the respective insurance model.

Why do companies use this benefit?

Companies mostly use bKV where health is perceived as a relevant component of the benefit portfolio. From the employer's perspective, the advantage lies less in a single effect than in the combination of an understandable benefit, a relatively clear link to the employment relationship, and a service that can be tangible in employees' everyday lives. Practical examples from the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (IHK) explicitly associate bKV with faster access to medical care and with employee retention.

In addition, bKV fits well into a broader HR strategy. IHK materials on retaining skilled workers explicitly name health as a relevant field of action when companies want to strengthen their attractiveness and employee retention. In this context, bKV can complement other measures such as health promotion, flexible working conditions, or professional development without replacing them.

For HR and benefit advisors, it is also important that bKV can be a benefit that is very easy to explain. Unlike highly specialized benefits, the connection to the topics of healthcare and health coverage is usually quickly understood, even by employees who have had little to do with benefits so far.

Benefits at a glance

Advantages for employers

Easy-to-understand health benefit with visible practical relevance
Can support recruiting and employee retention
Can be used alongside other health and benefit measures

Advantages for employees

Supplementary services beyond regular health insurance coverage, depending on the plan, e.g., for preventive care, vision aids, dental, or hospital services
Access to additional health services within the framework set up by the employer
Noticeable appreciation in everyday working life

In practice

In practice, bKV is used particularly often where companies want to add a clearly understandable health topic to their benefits. From IHK practical examples and IHK materials on health promotion, it can be inferred that this can be relevant both for small and medium-sized enterprises and for companies with a particular focus on retaining skilled workers. Especially when no extensive in-house health infrastructure is to be built, bKV can be an interesting complementary building block.

What to keep in mind

When introducing the benefit, its specific design should be reviewed carefully. For the wage tax and social security classification, it is relevant, among other things, how the benefit is promised under the employment contract and whether, in the individual case, it is to be classified as a cash payment or as a non-cash benefit; the official foundations can be found in particular at the German Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF), in the German Income Tax Act (EStG), and in the German Social Security Remuneration Ordinance (SvEV). The implementation should therefore be coordinated with tax advisors, payroll, the insurer, and, where applicable, other professional contacts. This note does not replace tax or legal advice.