Using insurance has allowed people and businesses to substitute unpredictable, often catastrophically large expenses for stable, relatively small payments over time. Although many of the first insurance schemes in operation were not-for-profit mutual funds (where contributions from all policyholders contributed to covering loss for policyholders who experienced a misfortune), today, the insurance industry is a competitive and potentially\u00a0highly profitable one.<\/p>\n
One of the most important factors that affects an insurers profitability is the underlying risk profile of its policyholders. Knowing this, insurance companies have long been trying to improve the profile of their policyholders by discriminating on factors that indicate higher probability of risks eventualising: set higher car-insurance premiums for teenage drivers who are likely to be reckless, offer lower life-insurance premiums to healthy young males with no family history of diabetes, and so on. Most of the factors used have traditionally been static, either demographic in nature or point-in-time data. These factors are assumed to be good indicators of future behaviour and the insurable outcomes they bring about. But what if this future behaviour can be tracked in real time? What if this future behaviour can be shaped in a way that improves outcomes?<\/p>\n
One South African insurance company has been finding out.<\/p>\n
Discovery, founded in 1992 with an initial focus on health insurance, has been using technology to incentivise healthy behaviour through its Vitality rewards programme1<\/sup>. By encouraging policyholders to live more balanced lifestyles, the business hopes to create a win-win, where consumers can live longer, more fulfilled lives, and the insurance company can be more profitable in the long term thanks to having to pay out fewer claims.<\/p>\n Discovery began this journey by encouraging policyholders to visit the gym more regularly, partnering with Virgin Active Health Clubs to offer members up to 80% off gym subscriptions, provided visits were above a minimum threshold2<\/sup>. As technology has improved and become more ubiquitous, Discovery has become more precise in encouraging healthy behaviour. First, Discovery links policyholders\u2019 membership numbers to loyalty cards at national supermarket chains3<\/sup>. By accessing the purchasing data of its policyholders, Discovery can reward healthy eating (by offering cash back on purchases of vegetables and other healthy foods) and penalise less healthy behaviour. More recently, Discovery has linked its Vitality rewards programme to results from wearable technology and mobile applications that monitor exercise3<\/sup>. Not only has this allowed Discovery to be even more precise in allocating rewards to \u201cgood\u201d behaviour, but has also given it access to a wealth of data (including heart rate, blood pressure and exercise duration) which will better equip it to predict how certain behaviours affect health outcomes in the future.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=egEZN-paJRQ<\/a><\/p>\n Video: Your Journey to Wellness with Discovery Vitality<\/strong><\/p>\n A natural extension of its health care business was a move into life insurance1<\/sup> (launched in 2001) where the promotion of a healthy lifestyle is another clear win-win. The popularity of the Vitality rewards programme enabled Discovery to leapfrog established life insurance companies (who have been operating for more than a century) to become South Africa\u2019s leading life insurance provider within 15 years1<\/sup>. Next, it moved into short-term insurance with the launch of Discovery Insure for vehicles. Here Vitality rewards continue to be used to drive good behaviour. A small tracker is installed in each policyholders\u2019 vehicle, which transmits real-time data, including speed of driving, braking, accelerating and cornering data and even times of day driven4<\/sup>. Discovery rewards safe drivers with cash back on fuel purchases and reimbursements on public transport costs.<\/p>\n Despite concerns that many analysts have about data privacy5<\/sup>, Discovery has been very popular with consumers and has continued its record of impressive growth since being founded6<\/sup>. Although funding Vitality and the associated behavioural changes comes at a high cost, Discovery is betting that the long-term benefits of having less risky policyholders will far outweigh the near-term expenses.<\/p>\n As the team continues its global expansion into other financial services (Discovery was recently awarded a retail banking licence in South Africa) and other geographies (Discovery and Vitality are directly present or through partnership in more than 5 countries including the UK, USA and China7<\/sup>), I hope they are taking some time out to get a daily run in. [687 words]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n Discovery is revolutionising financial services by leveraging technology to drive behavioural changes in its customers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2662,"featured_media":16461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[813,208,565,730,1653,2003,2121],"class_list":["post-16460","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activewear","category-health","category-health-and-wellness","category-insurance","category-insurance-companies","category-south-africa","category-wearable-technology"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/digitization-challenge-2016\/","yoast_head":"\n\n