Health and life insurer Discovery has announced a global partnership with Google, harnessing artificial intelligence to transform preventative healthcare. The initiative aims to provide individuals with highly personalised recommendations to improve their health, simultaneously helping to drive down the rising cost of insurance cover. The new platform, dubbed Vitality AI, combines the insurer’s extensive behavioural change expertise with Google Cloud’s…
Tag: preventative health
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Poor Sleep Mortality Risk Linked to Irregular Patterns
Individuals who maintain irregular sleep patterns and get less than the recommended seven hours of sleep per night face a staggering 22% higher poor sleep mortality risk than the general population. This is the landmark finding from new research conducted by South Africa’s largest health and life insurer, Discovery. They analysed data from over 100,000 people. The organisation, a pioneer…
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Discovery Health’s Top Claims of 2024 Revealed
Discovery Health Medical Scheme (DHMS) has revealed the immense scale of its 2024 claims. It paid out a total of R83 billion last year. The scheme highlighted its ten highest individual claims, which alone amounted to R70.5 million. This underscores the critical role of medical cover in managing catastrophic health events. Presenting at the scheme’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), DHMS…
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Younger South Africans turning to medical insurance
Medical schemes in South Africa operate on a community-rated system, offering open enrollment where members pay the same contributions regardless of their health status or age. According to the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) 2023/24 annual report, about nine million people belong to 71 registered medical schemes. However, younger South Africans are increasingly turning to medical insurance, which offers lower…