Over 2 million COVID-19 infections have been reported in South Africa since March 2020. There have been over 61,000 reported deaths and over 176,000 excess natural deaths, of which the majority is likely attributable to COVID-19. The loss of life has been accompanied by strain on the healthcare system, adverse socio-economic effects, psychological distress and serious economic regression.

With 19 schemes and just over 3.5 million lives under administration, Discovery Health has recorded just under 300,000 COVID-19 cases to date. Discovery Health has used its large multi-faceted data to assess variations in clinical outcomes and the direct financial impact of the pandemic on our members and the healthcare system.

This presentation will cover the spectrum of analytics and initiatives undertaken to support the evolving needs of our members and national strategic objectives over the course of the pandemic thus far.  It will highlight the power of analytics in optimising outcomes and protecting the lives of our members. We will share detailed insights on: the variation of admission and mortality outcomes of COVID-19 members among different cohorts and across the waves of the pandemic, methodologies applied to identify possible repeat infections, promising results from the assessment of our pulse oximeter distribution initiative, our COVID-19 resilience index and the vaccine roll out and vaccine efficacy assessments.

Furthermore, unprecedented claiming patterns and changes in non-COVID-19 health-seeking behaviour has resulted in a large degree of uncertainty of future utilisation levels and budgetary requirements of medical schemes. We will focus on cases of loss, substitution and delay in non-COVID-19 health seeking behavior due to the COVID-19 pandemic and this potential impact on members. We will share our analytical approach to understanding both the direct and indirect long-term impacts of COVID-19 on our members and schemes.