The SWICA Healthcare Organisation

SWICA is one of the leading health and accident insurers in Switzerland with approximately 1.7 million insured persons and 31'100 corporate clients.

SWICA offers its clients long-term financial security and optimum medical care in the event of illness, accident and maternity.

SWICA is the only healthcare organisation with an integrated service chain for all questions relating to your health – from medical care through expert support for victims of an illness or accident, all the way to health promotion in companies.

SWICA's philosophy – we focus on the health of the individual.

We see ourselves as a healthcare organisation, not just as an insurer. We provide comprehensive insurance cover and are committed to helping our customers stay healthy, get healthy and live with a disability.

SWICA is one of Switzerland's leading health and accident insurers. We offer comprehensive cover for medical expenses and loss of earnings due to illness and accident. In basic insurance, private customers can choose between the standard model as defined in law, a range of alternative insurance models, and variable personal excesses. The basic insurance offering can be combined with needs-oriented supplementary insurance plans. Appropriate hospitalisation cover is also available for every life situation. Corporate clients can take out daily benefits and accident insurance with SWICA. The common feature of all SWICA’s offerings and services is that we deliver them with above-average service quality.
As a healthcare organisation, our focus is on the individual, not on an illness or accident. Our objective is the health of our customers – because health is everything. The more responsibility you take for your own health, the lower your premiums. We encourage our customers to invest regularly in their health and fitness and contribute up to 1'300 francs per year under the supplementary insurance plans towards relevant activities (go to detailed information).

As pioneers in illness prevention and health promotion we also offer the BENEVITA health platform. It makes a contribution towards raising health awareness. Customers who sign up for this integrated bonus programme collect bonus points by undertaking health-promoting activities. This in turn entitles them to a premium discount on some supplementary insurance plans.

In order to raise health awareness among the employees of our corporate clients, we advise and support companies in establishing or expanding professional occupational health management systems and in planning and implementing effective measures to promote health in the workplace. We also offer our corporate clients group contracts so that their employees can enjoy SWICA’s comprehensive offering and high service quality on favourable terms for their private health insurance.

santé24 is also involved in delivering preventive healthcare and customer support. Doctors and medical specialists provide advice around the clock – about appropriate medical checkups, for example. Checkups can be carried out at Medbase Medical Centres or SWICA partner practices.
Individuals who have been ill or who have been injured in an accident can make use of both conventional and complementary medicine. SWICA has always been in favour of finding the best possible combination of these two approaches. Individuals undergoing examinations and medical procedures must be confident that their treatment is based on a sustainable all-round approach to healthcare. We are convinced that treatment quality improves when a patient's therapy is properly coordinated, and we know from experience that this leads to cost savings (e.g. by cutting out duplicate examinations).

The Medbase Medical Centers and SWICA partner practices are an important, high-quality element of SWICA’s all-round offering. They provide our customers with access to this network of doctors and therapists. These conveniently located centres and practices work closely together with general practitioners and specialists.

With the BENECURA app, our insured persons can use the SymptomCheck to digitally get a recommendation on how to treat possible symptoms. During a subsequent phone call with sante24, they can decide for themselves whether to release their information from SymptomCheck to sante24.

Corporate client employees who fall ill or suffer an accident also receive intensive support in that they can rely on the services of a care manager during their recovery and return to work.
Illnesses and accidents can mean that not everything will be all right again – ever again. For people in these situations, more than for others, health becomes a lifelong task. We provide them with advice and practical support so that they can live as self-determined a life as possible, e.g. with our integrated care programmes. We integrate telemedicine, online coaching programmes, pharmacies, GP practices and specialist physicians to deliver professional care with the minimum of stress. For people with a disability who may need regular medical care, it is all the more important that we offer them medical care which is optimally adapted to their situation.
By encouraging people to adopt healthy lifestyles, ensuring that sick and injured people make a rapid recovery and helping people with disabilities to achieve the best possible quality of life, we create space for solidarity between the healthy and the sick, between women and men, and between young and old.

We also create this space by focusing our actions on effectiveness and efficiency in order to keep administrative costs as low as possible – by managing our assets responsibly, making investments that make us even better, entering into helpful collaborations, digitizing processes that do not need human intervention, and continually enhancing the knowledge and professionalism of our employees. In this way, we contribute towards the overall success of the Swiss healthcare system and towards reducing its costs.

Strategic SWICA mission statement

«WE ARE COMMITTED TO YOUR HEALTH – BECAUSE HEALTH IS EVERYTHING»
Health is our most precious possession. SWICA is the healthcare organisation that puts people and their health at the centre. SWICA is involved in every area relating to health and is personally committed to its customers. That‘s what SWICA is there for. And that‘s what we at SWICA are committed to.

Milestones in the history of the SWICA Healthcare Organisation:

1992 Merger of four health insurers to form the SWICA Healthcare Organisation:
  • OSKA, Eastern Switzerland health insurance fund; founded in 1870, based in St. Gallen
  • ZOKU Swiss health and accident insurance fund, founded in 1922, based in Zurich
  • SBKK, Swiss occupational health insurance fund, founded in 1943, based in Winterthur
  • Panorama health insurance fund, founded in 1989, based in Winterthur

1994 Establishment of 15 health centres throughout Switzerland and promotion of primary care models

1996 SWICA launches comprehensive insurance offering for businesses (daily sickness benefits and accident insurance)

1998 Establishment of professional SWICA Care Management

2000 GLOBAL CARE, the insurance offering for Swiss citizens living abroad permanently or for a substantial period, is launched.

2005 SWICA reaches the milestone of 1 million insured persons.

2008 The sante24 health advice helpline is introduced.

2009 SWICA continues to develop its health centres and strengthens its basic care offering through agreements with medical and partner practices.

2012 SWICA’s health centres become independent companies under the name of santémed Health Centres Ltd.

2013 The cooperation between SWICA and PROVITA is strengthened: PROVITA is integrated into SWICA Group.

2015 A 70% stake in santémed is sold to Migros subsidiary Medbase to enable more rapid expansion of the health centres.

2016 SWICA is the first health insurer to introduce a pharmacy model: With the MEDPHARM basic insurance model, insured persons can first contact a TopPharm pharmacy or call santé24. Going to a doctor – if necessary – is then only part of a second step. The model aims to counter the trend of rising healthcare costs.

2019 The Swiss santé24 telemedicine service gets a licence. This means that santé24 doctors can now prescribe medication and issue sick notes in digital form, for example.