Vitality's Shared-Value Insurance encourages behavior-change to make people healthier

Vitality is the world’s largest behavioral platform linked to financial services, and forms the foundation for insurance and financial services organizations to access Vitality Shared-Value Insurance.

A distinguishing feature of Vitality is the way incentives and financial and lifestyle rewards encourage people to make healthier choices a habit and shift behaviors associated with better health. These healthy behaviors have subsequent positive effects on insurers and society while it addresses the three key areas that have the highest potential to improve health over the long term – nutrition, physical activity and preventive screening.

Behavior change is difficult

People are over-optimistic about their health – discounting the long-term effects of lifestyle choices made today for immediate gratification. Vitality’s antidote to this issue is by using incentives, built on behavioral economics, clinical pathways and funded through actuarial savings.

How Vitality works

Over two decades, Vitality has learnt to positively change behavior and make people healthier through rewards and incentives, by integrating the program into insurance and financial services products.

Vitality focuses on three key areas

TVG_img_Icons_group

Access to a network of providers
Lowers the cost barriers to a healthier lifestyle and providing significant data to measure and verify behavior and engagement.

TVG_img_Icons_adjustments

Tailored solutions based on individual risk factors and preferences
Personalized and tailored solutions makes the program easy to use and effective.

TVG_img_Icons_rewards

Rewards for engagement with the program
Offers a broad incentive structure that addresses different behavioral motivators.

Shared-Value Insurance: A shift to a new way of insurance globally

Vitality’s integration with insurance products has resulted in a new category of insurance: Vitality Shared-Value Insurance. First applied in South Africa and the United Kingdom by Discovery’s insurance companies, the platform includes a network of the largest insurance companies – representing more than 35% of the global personal protection market. These insurance companies are increasingly recognizing their ability to place a monetary value on people’s health and positive health behavior, with some insurers committing to take on the social responsibility of making people healthier.

By encouraging and rewarding healthy behavior change, insurers experience fewer claims, improved lapse rates and increased profits – these profits generated by improved health in turn fund further incentives that create ongoing behavior change. The result is a virtuous cycle called Shared-Value Insurance, which shares material benefits between the insurer (more profits), clients (greater health and financial rewards) and society (lowered healthcare costs and a healthier, more productive workforce).

The results of Shared-Value Insurance

Insurance is no longer simply protection in case of disease or priced based on an existing condition, but helps people become healthier and rewards improved health achieved through exercise, better nutrition and other lifestyle choices. Shared-Value Insurance makes insurance more affordable and the premiums are under the control of the client. Insurers on the Vitality platform have also seen a substantial change to their businesses through greater returns, increased sales, a healthy and engaged client base, and a visible social impact from positive behavior change. Studies on Vitality have proven its ability to help significantly improve health outcomes and lower insurance costs.

Discovery through Vitality was recognized as the second strongest insurance brand globally (Brand Finance Insurance 100 report 2019). The model also received recognition as the DNA underpinning the world’s most innovative life insurance companies (NMG 2018) and the World Health Organization supports Vitality for its ability to impact health at scale.

Shared-Value Insurance: improving retirement savings, driving and financial wellness

The Shared-Value Insurance model can be extended beyond health to encourage positive behaviors change in other aspects such as retirement savings, driving and financial wellness.

Long-term savings

Similar to applications in life and health insurance, the shared-value methodology is applied to long-term savings and retirement planning – better health directly influences life expectancy and savings needed in retirement.

Driving

Driving behavior explains the majority of motor vehicle insurance claims globally. Vitality Drive encourages good driving behavior and has linked-braking, accelerating, cornering and speeding to increased insurance risk and the price of motor insurance – based on over 5 billion kilometers of driver-behavior data. Incentives to improve driving behavior have created an improvement in insurance claims costs and the way people drive.

Money

Consumption, lack of financial protection and excess debt are the biggest influencers of credit default, financial prosperity and shortfalls in retirement. Vitality Money uses incentives to encourage prudent management of finances and prices positive financial behavior into savings and borrowing rates. Vitality Money forms the basis of the world’s first behavioral bank – Discovery Bank.