An IPID (insurance product information document) is a standardised summary — typically two pages — that UK insurers must provide before you buy any general insurance policy, health insurance included. Identical headings and icons across all insurers make quick comparison easy. But it's only a summary: the full policy wording and your schedule govern what's actually covered, and the IPID says so itself.
- ✓Every insurer's IPID uses the same headings and icons — built for side-by-side comparison.
- ✓It's a summary, not the contract: the policy wording and your schedule always govern.
- ✓IPIDs rarely show your personal limits, excess or exclusions — those live in your quote and schedule.
The two-page document with a legal job
The IPID exists because regulators concluded that nobody reads 60-page policy wordings before buying — so insurers must hand over something people will read. Introduced across the UK and EU in 2018 under the Insurance Distribution Directive and enforced here by the Financial Conduct Authority, the IPID is a standardised summary that must be given to you before you buy any general insurance product, from car cover to private medical insurance.
The format is deliberately rigid: a short, plainly worded document — typically two sides of A4 — with fixed sections and standard icons. Whether you're looking at Bupa, AXA Health, Aviva, Vitality, WPA or The Exeter, the IPID answers the same questions in the same order, in language tested for readability. That rigidity is the point: it makes products comparable at a glance, which full policy wordings never are.
What an IPID shows you
Every IPID walks through the same fixed headings:
- What is this type of insurance? A one-paragraph description of the product category.
- What is insured? The headline benefits — for health insurance, typically inpatient and day-patient treatment, diagnostics, and options like outpatient or mental health cover, marked with green ticks.
- What is not insured? The headline exclusions — typically chronic conditions, pre-existing conditions, emergencies, pregnancy and cosmetic treatment, marked with red crosses.
- Are there any restrictions on cover? The orange-exclamation-mark section: excesses, benefit limits, hospital list restrictions, underwriting caveats.
- Where am I covered? Usually the UK only for PMI.
- What are my obligations? Honest disclosure, pre-authorising claims, paying premiums.
- When and how do I pay? / When does cover start and end? / How do I cancel? The mechanics, including the cooling-off period.
What it omits — a summary is not the contract
The IPID's usefulness comes from its brevity, and so do its limits. By design it omits the numbers that decide real claims: your specific outpatient limit, your excess, your hospital list tier, consultant fee schedules, the precise definitions of 'acute', 'chronic' and 'pre-existing', and — above all — any personal exclusions applied to you at underwriting. It describes the product shelf, not the item you're taking home.
Every IPID carries wording to this effect: complete pre-contractual and contractual information is provided in the full policy documents. Legally, the policy wording and your schedule govern; the IPID creates no rights beyond them. If the IPID's cheerful green tick says 'outpatient cover' and your schedule says 'up to £500 a year', the £500 is the truth of your policy.
We read past page two
Using IPIDs to compare policies quickly
Used correctly, a stack of IPIDs is the fastest first-pass filter in insurance. Because the sections align, you can lay three or four side by side and scan the same heading across all of them. Here's what to compare at each stop:
| IPID section | What to compare across insurers |
|---|---|
| What is insured? | Whether mental health, outpatient care and therapies appear as core or as paid options. |
| What is not insured? | Exclusions beyond the standard set — the odd one out across your stack is the finding. |
| Restrictions on cover | Mentions of benefit caps, guided referral, six-week options, hospital list tiers — the flags to investigate in the full documents. |
| Obligations | Pre-authorisation rules and disclosure duties — usually similar, but note anything unusual. |
| Cancellation | Cooling-off period and post-claim cancellation terms. |
Then graduate the two or three survivors to the real comparison: the full benefit table, the exclusions list and your actual quoted schedule — the ten-minute method in our policy-reading guide. IPIDs choose the shortlist; documents choose the winner. Our comparison methodology puts both steps in a full framework.
Where to find IPIDs
You shouldn't have to hunt: the FCA requires the IPID to reach you in good time before purchase, so any online quote journey will present or link it before payment — usually alongside the policy wording on the quote summary page. Insurers also publish IPIDs on their websites, typically under 'policy documents', 'important information' or on each product page; searching the insurer's name plus 'IPID' generally lands directly on the PDF.
If you're buying through a broker, they'll supply the IPID for each recommended product — and a good broker will have already done the cross-IPID comparison for you, whole-of-market, which is much of what broker-vs-direct value consists of. One housekeeping habit: save the IPID with your policy documents. It's dated, versions change, and the copy you were given forms part of the pre-contractual record of what you were told.
A final note on scope: the IPID regime covers standard insurance contracts, which is most of this market — but not quite all of it. Discretionary products like Benenden's mutual membership aren't insurance contracts in the same legal sense, so they document themselves differently; cash plans from providers like Simplyhealth are insurance and do carry IPIDs. If a product you're weighing has no IPID at all, that's not automatically a red flag — but it is a prompt to understand exactly what category of product you're actually buying, and what promises it does and doesn't make.
Frequently asked questions
What does IPID stand for in insurance?
Insurance product information document — the standardised summary that UK insurers must provide before you buy any general insurance policy, including private medical insurance. It was introduced in 2018 under the Insurance Distribution Directive and is enforced by the Financial Conduct Authority. The fixed format — same headings and icons across all insurers — exists to make products comparable at a glance.
Is an IPID legally binding?
No — and it says so on the document. The IPID is pre-contractual information: a summary designed to help you compare and decide. Your actual cover is governed by the full policy wording plus your certificate and schedule, which record your personal terms, limits and exclusions. If the IPID's summary and the policy documents ever differ in detail, the policy documents govern.
What sections does a health insurance IPID contain?
The fixed set: what this type of insurance is; what is insured (green ticks); what is not insured (red crosses); restrictions on cover (orange exclamation marks); where you're covered; your obligations; when and how you pay; when cover starts and ends; and how to cancel. Every UK insurer uses the same headings in the same order, which is exactly what makes side-by-side comparison work.
What doesn't an IPID tell me about a health insurance policy?
The numbers that decide claims: your specific outpatient limit, excess, hospital list tier, consultant fee schedules, the definitions of acute, chronic and pre-existing, and any personal exclusions applied at underwriting. Two meaningfully different policies can produce near-identical IPIDs because the differences live in figures the summary format omits. Those details are in the benefit table, policy wording and your schedule.
How do I use IPIDs to compare health insurance policies?
Lay them side by side and scan matching sections: check whether outpatient and mental health cover are core or optional under 'what is insured', hunt for the odd-one-out exclusion under 'what is not insured', and treat every mention in 'restrictions' — caps, guided referral, list tiers — as a flag to investigate. Use IPIDs to cut the field to two or three, then compare those on full benefit tables and quotes.
Where do I find an insurer's IPID?
Before purchase, it must be presented to you — online quote journeys link it near the payment step, and brokers supply it with recommendations. Outside a quote, insurers publish IPIDs on product pages or under 'policy documents' on their websites; searching the insurer name plus 'IPID' usually finds the PDF directly. Save the version you were given with your policy papers — versions change over time.
Do all health insurers have to provide an IPID?
Yes — the requirement applies to all general insurance products distributed in the UK, and private medical insurance is no exception. Whether you buy direct, through a broker or via a comparison journey, the distributor must give you the IPID in good time before the contract concludes. Note the boundary cases: products like Benenden's discretionary membership aren't standard insurance contracts, so their documentation differs.
Is the IPID the same as a policy summary or key facts document?
It's the standardised successor to them. Before 2018, insurers produced 'key facts' or policy summary documents in varying formats; the IPID replaced these for general insurance with one fixed, regulator-mandated template so summaries became comparable across insurers. You may still see richer 'policy summary' documents alongside the IPID — useful reading, but the IPID is the one guaranteed to exist and to match its rivals' format.
Should I keep my IPID after buying the policy?
Yes. It's dated, versioned and forms part of the record of what you were told before buying — relevant if a dispute ever turns on what was disclosed. File it with your certificate, schedule and the policy wording for each policy year. It's also the quickest refresher on your product's shape at renewal time, when comparing your renewal against the market again.