ONI Health Partners is a service brand of named consultant orthopaedic surgeons, on retainer to UK private medical insurers, group income protection providers, and direct employers. We triage musculoskeletal cases before they become a claim, a referral, or a surgical conversion. Reducing utilisation, not just paying for it.
UK private medical insurers paid out roughly £4 to £5 billion in claims in 2024, with musculoskeletal sitting in the top three cost categories by spend alongside cancer and mental health. Bupa alone reported insurance service expense of £3.2 billion in 2024, with claims inflation cited as a primary driver of rising loss ratios across the corporate book.
The musculoskeletal share of that spend is structurally avoidable. Most cases that progress to consultant referral, imaging, or surgery do not require surgical management. They require correct early triage by an experienced clinician — and the existing pathway does not provide it.
For insurers, that means tens to hundreds of millions of pounds in annual claim cost that does not need to be there. For corporate policy-holders, it means premium inflation year after year and absence costs the people-function cannot defend at board level.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 has now made statutory sick pay payable from the first day of absence, putting workforce musculoskeletal cost on the people-function profit and loss for the first time. The two cost lines — claims and absence — are increasingly being read together.
The clinical evidence supporting consultant-led conservative triage is now strong and replicated across multiple high-quality reviews.
The same conclusion is reinforced by the Keele University STarT Back trial (Hill et al., The Lancet, 2011), which demonstrated that stratified primary-care management for low back pain reduced time-off-work by 50% and delivered approximately £675 per patient in societal savings without increasing healthcare costs.
The implication for insurers is direct: a meaningful share of the musculoskeletal claims paid each year did not need to fire. The clinical service required to triage them out exists. It has not previously been packaged as an insurer-grade product. That is what ONI Health Partners builds.
OHP plugs into the member journey for private medical insurance and group income protection portfolios. Covered members self-refer for rapid virtual consultation with a named consultant orthopaedic surgeon. The surgeon takes a structured clinical history, reviews any prior imaging the member has, observes movement on video, and decides the appropriate next step in the pathway. For most musculoskeletal presentations, a structured virtual consultation is sufficient to make that triage decision — this is now supported by a substantial post-pandemic evidence base for orthopaedic telemedicine.
Where physical examination, imaging, or in-person specialist review is clinically indicated, the OHP consultant arranges an in-person appointment through their existing practising privileges, usually within days rather than weeks. The decision between virtual and in-person sits with the consultant, not with the patient or the insurer. No formal claim is opened for the OHP consultation itself. For cases that do require surgical or onward specialist care, OHP routes the member into the established claim pathway with a clear clinical record and a faster start.
Priced per covered employee per year, well below the average musculoskeletal claim cost per covered life. Every triaged case that does not progress to claim is direct margin saved on your loss ratio.
Covered members reach a named consultant orthopaedic surgeon within 48 hours of self-referral. Speed is the single most differentiating feature versus existing private medical insurance specialist-referral timelines.
White-label, co-branded, or wraparound. A partnership shape already validated in adjacent UK clinical-service-brand categories. Commercial terms are flexible and built around the insurer's portfolio.
Retrospective analysis of your last 12 months of musculoskeletal claims. Output is a board-level memo: the avoidable-claim share, the cost concentration by sub-specialty, and a modelled annual saving if upstream triage had been in place. Delivered under confidentiality agreement.
OHP is made available to a defined population of covered lives. Member engagement, triage outcomes, claim avoidance and member satisfaction are tracked monthly. Pricing can be risk-shared on the pilot in exchange for outcome data.
Once the pilot validates, the service scales across the relevant corporate book. Per-covered-life pricing fixed annually. Quarterly reporting to the insurer's strategy, product, and underwriting teams. Optional category-exclusivity terms.
Where an HR Director wants to engage OHP directly — without waiting for their insurer to bring it as a wraparound — we operate two retainer tiers. Founding-cohort pricing, valid for the first five direct-employer retainers signed.
Consultant orthopaedic surgeon in the National Health Service, specialising in complex hip and knee surgery. Private practice across Kent, Sussex, and London.
ONI Health Partners is a service brand operated as the corporate division of ONI Orthopaedics Limited. The founding panel covers hip and knee, spine, shoulder and elbow, foot and ankle, and hand and wrist. Each covered member is matched to the right named consultant for their condition. Mr Oni serves as the named principal and relationship lead for every insurer and direct-employer engagement.
For private medical insurers, group income protection providers, brokers and intermediaries exploring a prevention-layer partnership.
Insurer enquiryFor UK employers with 150 to 1,000 staff considering a direct-retainer engagement before their insurer offers OHP.
Employer enquiry