Key Facts

Discovery operates in the healthcare cover market in South Africa, the United Kingdom and China; the life insurance market in South Africa and the United Kingdom; as well as the long-term savings and investment market, and short-term insurance market in South Africa.

Vitality, Discovery’s wellness programme, is the world’s largest scientific, incentive-based wellness solution. It provides individual and corporate wellness initiatives in South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. The global Vitality membership base now exceeds two million lives.

Discovery’s core purpose is to make people healthier, and to enhance and protect their lives through financial products that clients need and want.

South African operations

Discovery Health

• Discovery Health is South Africa’s largest healthcare funder and manager of medical schemes. It covers over 2.5 million lives and manages 14 medical schemes.
• This includes the Discovery Health Medical Scheme, the country’s largest open medical scheme and the only one to enjoy an AA+ rating for its claims paying ability, the highest possible credit rating from international rating agency Global Credit Ratings.
• Discovery Health pioneered consumer-driven healthcare in South Africa with the introduction of innovations like the Medical Savings Account and its wellness programme, Vitality.
• Discovery Health was voted the top medical aid brand in the Sunday Times Top Brands survey for both 2010 and 2011.
• Discovery Health was voted the top healthcare product supplier at both the 2010 and 2011 Financial Intermediaries Association of Southern Africa (FIA) Awards.

Discovery Life

• Discovery Life is South Africa’s fastest growing major life assurer in the risk market, having captured 25% of the overall risk broker market.
• It was the first South African insurer to separate risk from investment, leading significant change in the industry.
• Discovery Life was voted the top life assurer in the Sunday Times Top Brands survey for both 2010 and 2011.
• Discovery Life was voted the top risk and life assurance supplier at the 2010 Financial Intermediaries’ Association (FIA) Awards and the top long-term insurer: recurring savings at the 2011 FIA Awards.

Discovery Invest 

• Discovery Invest was launched in October 2007 and declared its maiden profit in 2010.
• Discovery Invest combines the breadth and skill of the asset management industry with the existing research and development capabilities of Discovery Life.
• The company offers consumers a unique and comprehensive product range that addresses the current gaps in the market by offering greater protection against poor investment choices.
• By June 2011, assets under management exceeded R17 billion.
• Through Discovery Invest’s LISP platform, clients have access to over 170 investment funds.

Discovery Vitality

• Discovery Vitality underpins each of the Discovery businesses and is an international brand in its own right.
• Vitality encourages healthy behaviours that reduce long-term healthcare costs by rewarding members for improving their health.
• It is accredited by the Sports Science Institute of South Africa.
• At the end of May 2011, 662 906 South Africans were Vitality members.
• Vitality is available to Discovery Health and Discovery Life members in SA, and clients of PruHealth and PruProtect in the UK.
• In February 2009, the HealthyFood™ benefit was launched. This benefit saves members up to 25% on a wide range of healthy foods they buy at local retailer Pick n Pay.
• Vitality’s value offering is further enhanced by the DiscoveryCard that gives members real cash back.

Discovery Insure

• Discovery Insure was launched in May 2011.
• This pioneering product was created by leveraging the behavioural expertise developed in the Vitality programme with the latest telematics technology.
• Through its incentive-based driver programme, VitalityDrive™, Discovery Insure rewards clients for good driving and ensuring their vehicle is roadworthy.
• VitalityDrive™ provides up to 40% fuel rewards on clients’ monthly BP fuel spend, by combining use of the DiscoveryCard, the BP fuel station network and an annual Tiger Wheel & Tyre MultiPoint check.
• Through a range of innovative tools and services, clients can measure how well they drive, protect themselves and their families on the road, and stay mobile after an accident.
• Discovery Insure offers comprehensive vehicle, personal and household cover.

International operations

United Kingdom

In the UK, Discovery has a 75% shareholding in a joint venture with Prudential plc. Through PruHealth and PruProtect, the company offers healthcare cover and protection products.   

PruHealth

• PruHealth was launched in October 2004. It is the 3^rd largest health insurer in the UK and the only one that rewards people for leading a healthy lifestyle.
• In 2010, Discovery acquired Standard Life Healthcare, thereby leveraging the significant assets of both companies and resulting in greater scale for PruHealth. The combined company now covers 641 448 lives.
• PruHealth has received several industry awards, including the Most Trusted PMI Provider at the 2009 Moneywise Awards, the Best PMI Provider at the 2009 Moneyfacts Awards and the award for the Best Use of Marketing to Intermediaries for 2009 at the Health Insurance Awards. 

PruProtect

• PruProtect was launched in 2007. Its strategy mirrors that of Discovery Life, as it is based on the Vitality structure and enables dynamic pricing to be employed in the UK life assurance market.
• The company is one of the fastest-growing protection providers in the UK and now covers 62 119 lives.
• PruProtect has received industry recognition, including awards in four categories at the 2011 Defacto Awards. The company was also named Best Individual Protection Provider in 2011 by Professional Adviser, and walked off with the Innovation Award at the 2011 Protection Review.

United States

The Vitality Group

• The Vitality Group was launched in August 2007 and offers a stand-alone version of the Vitality programme to self-insured, large employer groups and to healthcare carriers.
• Discovery holds a 75% share in The Vitality Group, 25% being held by Humana Inc.
• The group now has 135 792 Vitality members.
• The Vitality Group has entered into a partnership with Wellness and Prevention, a subsidiary of Johnson&Johnson, the world’s premier consumer health company.
• In 2011, the group was awarded the C Everett Koop National Health Award for its work with Alcon Laboratories, a highly prestigious award recognising outstanding workplace health improvement programmes.

HumanaVitality

• HumanaVitality was launched in July 2011. It is a joint venture between Humana Inc and Discovery (through The Vitality Group) that makes Vitality available to Humana clients with commercial medical plans.
• Discovery holds a 25% share in HumanaVitality.
• Humana Inc is the fourth largest health insurer in the US with 18 million members.
• There are now more than 160 000 HumanaVitality members.

China

Ping An Health

• Ping An Health was launched in 2010, after Discovery acquired a 20% share in Ping An Health Insurance Co of China Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China.
• Ping An Insurance is China’s leading insurer and the second largest in the world.
• The joint venture will see Discovery’s product innovation and consumer-engaged model exported to a potential market of 83 million families.
• Ping An Health now covers 1 500 corporates and over 300 000 lives.