Insurer brand to upend healthcare insurance with new approach

Employee health insurance in the country is set for a major shakeup after a subsidiary of a global insurer struck a product launch.

The product will incentivise individuals to live a healthy lifestyle by boosting the quality of life while simultaneously driving down insurance premiums and healthcare costs.

Vitality Health International (Africa) has partnered with Lifecare International as its in-market insurer in Kenya.

Lifecare will be the face of the new healthcare insurance approach in Kenya which aims to revolutionise the health insurance offering in the country.

The health insurance model is unique in that it will encourage employees to invest in healthy lifestyles like reduced smoking and physical exercising to boost their health, by rewarding them for improving their quality of life.

Studies have shown that prolonged sitting without walking or physical exercise is almost as deadly as smoking.

The lifestyles which are rewarded through Vitality Health International’s health insurance model also include proper nutrition and an affront against alcohol abuse.

Leading a healthy lifestyle as a member of Vitality Health International’s health insurance offer leads to reward clients, as well as overall lower healthcare costs, the two entities said while launching the framework early this week at a Nairobi hotel.

For employers, the benefits include improved workforce productivity.

Vitality Health International cautions that there are four key lifestyle elements that are linked to chronic illnesses, namely high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer which drive up to 60 per cent of preventable deaths globally.

Vitality Health International’s globally acclaimed science-based behaviour-change programme combines data analytics with rewards and incentives that encourage people to make healthier choices.

Vitality Health International CEO Emma Knox said during the launch event held earlier this week, that the introduction of the new approach would “…create greater awareness around the importance of health and wellness and provide tangible ways to improve people’s health.”

“At Vitality Health International we believe that by enabling businesses to help their employees improve their physical well-being to become healthier we can create far-reaching benefits for people, businesses and society more broadly.”

“Among its many benefits, the Vitality Health International healthcare model also rewards employers with a cashback of up to 10 per cent on renewal premiums for encouraging their employees to get healthy."

For employees, there is also the Vitality Health Fund which is unlocked when employees complete their Vitality Health Review."

The Fund extends their outpatient benefits by up to $100, based on an individual’s personal healthy choices as well as their individual engagement with the Vitality programme,” Lifecare International said in a statement.