Discovery Health - Vitality & Team Vitality plus everything else you need to know

[nathrix]

They somehow need to pay for all these "freebies" and "discounts"

 

Discovery se premies styg skerp

 

Deur Nellie Brand-Jonker 20 September 2016 13:19

 

http://www.netwerk24.com/Sake/Geldsake/reuse-skok-vir-discovery-lede-20160920

 

Die reuse- mediese skema Discovery Health het pas aangekondig dat lede se premies in 2017 met tussen 7,8% en 14,9% gaan styg.

Dit kom neer op ’n gemiddelde verhoging van 10,2% oor al Discovery se planne heen.

Discovery Health Medical Scheme  (DHMS) is die grootste oop mediese fonds in die land en die eerste wat sy verhogings en die veranderinge aan sy voordele vir volgende jaar aan die makelaarsbedryfbekend maak. Die premieverhogings van mediese skemas tree begin Januarie in werking en al die skemas sal nou hul verhogings begin bekend maak.

Discovery sê mediese inflasie gaan in die komende jaar met tot 20% styg. Dis ’n baie hoë styging wat verwag word en dit word deels aan meer hospitaalopnames toegeskryf.

Volgens Milton Streak, hoofbeampte van die DHMS, kondig die skema ’n gemiddelde verhoging van 10,2% aan. Dit was verlede jaar 8,6%.

Die verhoging is die geweegde gemiddelde styging, wat dieselfde getal lede van ’n opsie as in die vorige jaar gebruik om die gemiddeld te bereken.

Vir die verskillende planne styg dit tussen 7,8% en 14,9%. Dit is as volg vir sy verskillende planne:

• Executive en Comprehensive: 11,9%.
• Coastal Core: 14,9%. Die plan het wesenlike verhogings in die gebruik van hospitaaldienste beleef.
• Coastal Saver: 7,8%
• Alle ander planne: 9,9%.

Streak het in ’n verklaring gesê dit beteken die meeste lede van die skema gaan ’n verhoging van 9,9% of laer hê.

Dr. Jonathan Broomberg, uitvoerende hoof van die fonds se administrateur, Discovery Health, sê die bedryf gaan na verwagting ’n voortgesette skerp styging in mediese inflasie van tussen 10% en 20% in 2017 ervaar.

Hy sê vir die skema is die mediese inflasie tussen 10% en 15%.

Die faktore wat mediese inflasie verhoog bo die land se inflasiekoers sluit in die verhogings van gesondheidsorgdienste se pryse bo die inflasiekoers plus hoeveel meer van dienste gebruik gemaak word. Laasgenoemde kan deur pasiënte óf die verskaffers van gesondheidsorg veroorsaak word.

In die afgelope jaar het baie skemas gekla dat die opening van nuwe hospitale onmiddellik daartoe gelei het dat meer lede opgeneem is.

Streak sê omdat die fonds finansieel gesond is, kan hy die impak van die hoër eise in ’n mate absorbeer. Hy sê die verhoging in premies is “billik” gehou om te verseker dat voordele behou kan word en die skema volhoubaar bly.

Volgens Streak het voordele oor al die planne verbeter.

Hy sê nieteenstaande die skerp styging is die skema se bydraes per maand per lid laer as die gemiddelde van die bedryf.

Die meeste voordeelperke sal met 9,9% verhoog.

 

[Albatross]

They will tell you that you that you:

• shouldn't have delinked, but rather called them first;
• that because you delinked before contacting them, you will not be allocated those points prior to them sorting out the problem;

 

Anyone else reading this...

DO NOT DELINK YOUR DEVICE UNLESS YOU NO LONGER USE THAT BRAND!

Bugger

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

 

They somehow need to pay for all these "freebies" and "discounts"

 

 

The "freebies" and "discounts" are paid through Vitality only. I think you underestimate the speed at which medical costs increase on a year to year basis.... 

 

DH has to essentially fund itself through premiums and premiums only. IE premiums in = claims & admin costs out. 

 

That's it. 

 

Vitality is a completely separate business, even though there is some cross over with vitality clients costing them less. 

Edited September 20, 2016 by Myles Mayhew

[carbon29er]

Don't ignore the massive admin fee Discovery pulls out of Health that needs to increase year on year to keep shareholders happy.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Don't ignore the massive admin fee Discovery pulls out of Health that needs to increase year on year to keep shareholders happy.

Again, one of the smallest in the market. And when you actually have a look at the numbers, it's been contracting in real terms. They covered that today - and some of the trustees of the fund were present - it's the 6th lowest in the open scheme environment, and they're getting an increasing amount of closed schemes on their administration. You don't get that with abnormally high admin rates... 

 

Yeah, that's where the profit is derived out of the DH side of things, but it's also hugely competitive. The percentage of contributions hasn't been increasing. It's just that the growth in member numbers has been so large that the net rand value of the administration & marketing fees (incl commissions) have been climbing faster than inflation. 

Edited September 20, 2016 by Myles Mayhew

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Yeah, it could probably be reduced, but that would have to be tied to the coats of managing the med aid itself. And I an tell you right now. Out of the med aid management options out there at the moment, I'd FAR rather deal with Disco than any of the others. From a broker perspective it's like trying to deal with Allan Gray vs Sanlam.

 

They really are that much better than the rest. The fact that they're also cheaper than a large portion of the other administrators is an added bonus

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/healthcare/2016/06/24/discovery-scheme-defends-its-admin-fees

and then this...

 

http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/health/2016/03/04/discovery-scheme-quizzed-on-fees-paid-to-its-administrator

and this:

 

"The report, presented to members at the AGM, concludes that for every rand DHMS spent on administration fees, members got between R1.77 and R2.02 in total value.

And while the nonhealthcare fees paid by DHMS members were R11.43 higher per average beneficiary per month than the open medical scheme industry average, members paid R158.24 less for their risk contributions, which Deloitte said meant they were about R146.81 better off per average beneficiary per month than the industry."

From this article (back in 2013, before they were reduced as a % of contributions)

http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/healthcare/2013/06/25/review-supports-discovery-health-administration-fees

From 2011 http://www.moneyweb.co.za/archive/discovery-health-questioned-on-its-r266bn-fee-for/

And the most relevant to the problem of rising costs...

http://www.financialmail.co.za/coverstory/2016/07/29/discovery-s-adrian-gore-on-why-medical-aid-costs-are-soaring

[Runbikeswim]

Finaly emailed these two top brad mention here... lets see if they respond.

 

I got a phone call but again they asked me the same questions giving me the same just link your account or just de link your account nonsense

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Frosty]

Finaly emailed these two top brad mention here... lets see if they respond.

 

I got a phone call but again they asked me the same questions giving me the same just link your account or just de link your account nonsense

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Maybe I should send them a mail too

[Runbikeswim]

Maybe I should send them a mail too

Discovery insists i need re link.... so the have no clue... please do mail them.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Frosty]

I will mail them based on the fact that the feedback on the phone stated I won't receive points for activities completed between the delink and the day they fix the account.

 

The reason being that I shouldn't have delinked, but rather contacted them first. This is in contrast to your query.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[carbon29er]

There is a bug on the linking delinking process that the call centre is as clueless about as the developers who wrote the process.

 

The reasons I've read here are all BS, it is a bug that they cannot find.

 

What is pretty obvious is that you can only link 1 GC account to 1 Vitality account but you can link as many GC accounts to 1 device as you wish. Once the work out is in GC it should flow automatically to Vitality IF IT IS A GARMIN DEVICE on GC.

 

It is possible to load GC activities that were not recorded on a GARMIN device but no points will be allocated for these. My Tacx uploads to strava which then syncs to GC via tapiriik. No matter how much I hope, no GARMIN device is reflected and Vitality DO NOT award points.

 

Once you are linked from GC to Vitality but your workouts are not reflecting in Vitality NO AMOUNT of delinking and linking will fix the problem.  Only a support call to the developers will fix it MANUALLY.

 

The moral of the story: stop delinking and linking hoping it will sort you out. It won't.

[Gen]

Shees Vitaly sounds like more of a shlep program than a rewards program.[emoji53]

[shaper]

Shees Vitaly sounds like more of a shlep program than a rewards program.[emoji53]

When it works, it works well.... to date I have not had an issue since day 1 and was one of the very early takers up on VAR and work the system to the max, for everything and do very well out of it

 

But with anything that is app based and website developed there is the possibility for issues

[Gen]

In the space of 38 minutes I've had 6 email replies from Garmin SA, to verify that everything is setup correctly (w.r.t. permissions) in both my accounts.

 

The last email even asked that I give them feedback on the query, once resolved.

It's definitely not a Garmin problem I am with Multiply and had no issues on Monday when I linked Garmin connect with Multiply. I got delivery of the device on Friday and at that point the device was not yet linked with active dayz as it was still under testing but on Monday they (multiply) phoned me to say all is cool now I can link and he checked on his side that it was linking and it immediately allocated the points for the weekend's rides.

[Pure Savage]

I feel disco is keeping me off my road bike by taking forever to sort out my claim, that way they can save on the smoothies