Health to count more

DISCOVERY VITALITY: GOALPOSTS TO SHIFT MAJORLY IN 2020

Member status will in future be aligned to actual health outcomes to achieve better price risk.

The days of doing two annual assessments and swiping your gym card to grab a smoothie once a week and then achieving Diamond status are long gone. In 2020, Discovery’s Vitality will shift its focus to aligning a member’s status to actual health outcomes.

For a Vitality rewards status to actually mean anything when applied to Discovery’s product range it must be accurate. Discovery uses it, with other data, to better price risk. This is particularly important to Discovery Life.

Discovery told brokers “points thresholds required to reach Bronze, Silver and Gold Vitality status will be lowered to encourage engagement and to align thresholds with points earning categories and health outcomes”.

The points tiering in the Vitality Health Check, which measures blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol, weight assessment and a non-smoker’s declaration remain the same.

The points awarded for an HIV test (currently 5 000) have been changed to incentivise an initial test (7 500 points, with 1 000 points for annual tests thereafter).

Discovery says by 2030 “depression will be the world’s number one burden of disease”. It points to the “strong link” between mental and physical health.

Members will complete “online mental wellbeing assessments”. Up to 1 000 points can be earned a year for completing these.

“The outcomes of these assessments are used to give the member a clinical risk score reflecting their risk of developing depression and anxiety.”

Members will receive tailored recommendations and interventions.

Active Rewards becomes central to Vitality’s stated goal for 2020 of ensuring (and rewarding) “continued health engagement”.

Workouts tracked with a Vitality-linked device will still earn you up to 300 points per day. Gym visits still earn 100 points per day, but are now described as a “30-minute gym visit”.

From January, members will earn Discovery Miles when achieving weekly Active Rewards goals. Discovery says “members can spend Discovery Miles immediately through the Active Rewards partners or save them for up to five years for even higher value rewards.”

From next year, Netflix, (DStv) Box Office, Cotton On, Sportsmans Warehouse, Typo, Exclusive Books, Makro and Uber (among others) will join existing partners.

Discovery will push its new bank proposition heavily. There are the new weekly money goals that form part of Active Rewards, and it’ll increasingly incentivise those who have a bank account. For example, only those who have a qualifying bank account can convert Discovery Miles to cash.

There’s also the new 2020 Discovery Integrator, which incentivises clients for holding both Discovery Health membership and a (“qualifying”) Discovery Bank account by removing the need for them to pay a monthly Vitality contribution.

Monthly contributions for (full) Vitality are up 8-10%. Prices for Vitality Active “designed to make healthy living more accessible” are significantly higher.

Hilton Tarrant works at YFM