Guardian Group Critical Illness Insurance
Expanded benefits and earlier payouts help stretch the support employees can get when facing a covered serious illness or health event, such as Parkinson's disease, cancer, or a stroke. You may be surprised just how far.
Mind
Expanded mental and emotional care benefits for things like mental health assessments, postpartum depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Body
First-of-its-kind benefit payment for preventive measures taken as a result of having a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation.1 Earlier payouts at earlier stages of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s as well as expanded benefits for childhood conditions.2 Family-building benefits also available.
Wallet
Employees receive a lump-sum payment benefit at the onset of a covered critical illness. No deductible and no lifetime maximum cap on benefits. Option for employees to get a direct payment annually for completing certain health screenings, too.3
Roughly 10% to 20% of people diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease are under age 50, and about half receive the diagnosis before age 40.⁴
How can Guardian’s expanded benefits impact employee quality of life?
Tyler was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and had to deal with multiple life changes.
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Going even further with a built-in wellness benefit
Help employees offset care-related and medical insurance costs with a direct benefit payment for completing certain health screenings, tests, or procedures.⁶
That benefit payment helps motivate employees to go for routine health screenings, such as:
Annual physical
Colonoscopy
Fasting blood glucose test
Mammogram
And more
Benefit payments with less effort
Eliminate the need to file multiple claims when you offer critical illness insurance and short-term disability insurance, paid family leave, or state-mandated disability insurance with Guardian.
Get proactive seamless service
1 The gene mutation can increase the risk of certain cancers, including breast cancer.
2 Earlier payouts at earlier stages of conditions like Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson's disease.
3 One wellness benefit per calendar year per covered person if a covered person has a wellness test or procedure performed while coverage is in force. See your plan details for benefit amounts.
4 What is Early Onset Parkinson's Disease? American Parkinson Disease Association, 2025
5 Some features are highlighted for illustrative purposes only. Please refer to your plan for benefit details and terms. All scenarios and names mentioned herein are purely fictional and have been created solely for educational purposes. Any resemblance to existing situations, persons or fictional characters is coincidental.
6 One wellness benefit per calendar year per covered person if a covered person has a wellness test or procedure performed while coverage is in force. See your plan details for benefit amounts.
This advertising content is not currently intended for anyone in the state of California, Florida, Idaho, Michigan (<50 employees), New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Washington.
In the state of Michigan, critical illness insurance benefits are only available to employers with 51+ eligible employees. Infertility benefits are only available to employers with 100+ eligible employees. In New York, critical illness is referred to as specified disease.
Guardian’s Group Critical Illness Insurance is underwritten and issued by The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY. Products are not available in all states. Policy limitations and exclusions apply. Optional riders and/or features may incur additional costs. This is a limited plan of supplemental health insurance that provides the specified financial support, as a lump sum or indemnity payment, following the diagnosis of a critical illness. This is not minimum essential coverage as defined by federal law. This coverage will not reimburse for hospital or medical expenses. Generic Policy Form # CI-23-P. The state-approved form is the governing document.
Summary of Plan Limitations and Exclusions (for CI-23-P)
No benefits are payable for the following:
An illness that’s not listed in the Covered illnesses section.
An illness that’s diagnosed after your death unless there’s an exception specifically listed in this guide that we’ll accept a death certificate or autopsy report confirming the diagnosis of that illness.
An illness that’s diagnosed when you’re not covered by this Plan.
Any care, service, or treatment that’s received when this coverage isn’t in place.
An illness or condition that’s contributed to or results from any of the following:
Participating in a felony, riot, or insurrection
Intentionally causing a self-inflicted injury
Suicide or attempted suicide while sane or insane
Engaging in any illegal activity
Serving in the armed forces or any auxiliary unit of the armed forces of any country (This exclusion doesn’t apply to the PTSD benefit.)
The voluntary use of any poison, chemical, substance defined as a controlled substance by Title II of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, or prescription drug, unless prescribed by a physician and used as prescribed
The voluntary use of a non-prescription drug inconsistent with package instructions
War or act of war, even if war isn’t declared (This exclusion doesn’t apply to the PTSD benefit.)
An illness or condition that’s diagnosed outside the United States unless the diagnosis is confirmed in the United States. If the diagnosis is confirmed in the United States, the diagnosis will be considered to have been made on the date it was made outside the United States.
Any care, treatment, or service received outside the United States.
Any illness, care, treatment, or service that violates local, state, or federal law or for which our paying a benefit would violate local, state, or federal law.
Any claim for a benefit that isn’t specifically listed as an available benefit under the member guide.
An illness that’s diagnosed by you or a member of your immediate family or a business associate.*
Immediate family includes the following:
Your spouse or anyone with whom you live and share financial assets and obligations
Your child
Your parents, including stepparents and mother-in-law and father-in-law
Your siblings, including stepbrothers and stepsisters
Your brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law
Your grandparents, including step-grandparents
Your grandchildren, including step-grandchildren
Any relative living with you
Immediate family also includes the spouse of anyone listed above.
*This exclusion is not included for Arizona.
This policy will not pay for a diagnosis of a listed critical illness that is made before the covered person's Critical Illness effective date with Guardian.
A pre-existing condition includes any condition for which an employee, in the specified period of time prior to coverage in this plan, consults with a physician, receives treatment, or takes prescribed drugs.
Benefits for the second occurrence (recurrence) of that same illness will be available only if the illness occurs again after a period of at least 6 months in a row during which: 1) This coverage was in place without interruption; 2) No symptoms were exhibited; 3) No care or treatment was received for the illness. For the purposes of this limitation, care or treatment doesn’t include preventive medications taken in the absence of disease. Care or treatment also doesn’t include any routine, regularly scheduled follow-up visits with a physician.