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Discovery Health announces 2009 contribution increase and healthy benefit enhancements

18 September 2008 Discovery

  • Headline contribution increase of 12.8% within CPIX + 3% benchmark
  • New KeyCare contributions to grow private healthcare uninsured, low income market
  • New proprietary hospital network offers 20% discount to members of Core and Saver plans
  • Vitality members save up to 25% on healthy food at Pick n Pay


The headline increase of 12.8% and average increase of 12.4% across the Discovery Health Plans is in line with the Council for Medical Schemes’ guidelines and tracks consumer price inflation closely.

Adrian Gore (pictured), CEO of Discovery said: “We are cognisant of the financial pressures on our members in the current environment and take seriously our responsibility to offer them affordable healthcare without cutting benefits.”

“The Discovery Health Medical Scheme is in a unique position in the industry, as one of the very few medical schemes to show an operating surplus and continued growth. “

The Discovery Health Medical Scheme is also on track to meet the regulatory reserve requirement of 25% of gross contributions in reserve at the end of 2008 – the scheme already has over R5 billion in reserves.

Gore believes these are two major factors in Discovery Health’s ability to contain contribution increases and enhance benefits for next year in a way that is sustainable over the long term.

“I believe our risk management capabilities, effective use of scale and the impact of Vitality in making our members healthier, have enabled us to contain costs and offer our members affordable access to one of the best private healthcare systems in the world”.

The company also announced a new proprietary hospital network, the Delta network available to members on the Classic and Essential options within the Saver and Core plan ranges. The network gives members the ability to access the benefits of these plans at a 20% discount on their normal contribution.

The network has been carefully selected using one of Discovery’s key management assets, the Hospital Efficiency Index. The proprietary network is based on individual hospital efficiency and cuts across al hospital groups.

In line with Discovery Health's philosophy of supporting member choice, members can still access any hospital for non-emergency procedures outside the Delta hospital network, and pay a deductible of R3500.

KeyCare is South Africa’s largest plan in the lower income market, covering nearly 200 000 lives. It has until now targeted employed but uninsured South Africans earning less than R7 500 per month. However, the current cost of KeyCare was still out of the reach of a large section of the employed population and Discovery Health believes the new contribution bands for KeyCare in 2009 will make it possible for a greater proportion of them to gain access to private healthcare.

These contributions now start at R375 per member, with the benefits covering private care in a designated and managed network of hospitals and doctors. Discovery’s investment into the risk and clinical management of KeyCare has made this extension of the product into lower income segments possible.

Neville Koopowitz, Discovery Health’s Chief Executive Officer said: “Traditionally, those employees earning the least in companies have not had access to employer subsidies. We believe that through KeyCare, employers now have the ability to extend quality private health cover affordably to their entire workforce and enhance productivity in the workplace.”

Furthermore, Vitality members can look forward to enhanced benefits next year. From February 2009, Vitality members will earn Vitality points and qualify for a saving of up to 25% on all HealthyFood™ they buy at Pick n Pay. Foods such as fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, brown rice and others, which meet Vitality’s HealthyFood™ criteria based on the World Health Organisation nutrition guidelines, will qualify for these savings.

Koopowitz concludes: “We believe we have enhanced our current product and service offerings to our members and have opened up new markets with the benefit enhancements for 2009.’’

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