It’s been a challenging time for South Africans: recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedented vehicle inflation, rising fuel prices, devastating floods and over 50 days of continual loadshedding. All citizens and businesses have been impacted by these events and this is also true for the insurance industry. During lockdown, most insurers experienced saw a decline in the frequency of claims as a direct result of the restrictions imposed on the movement of our clients. Motor was impacted positively, and insurers saw a significant decline in accident, glass, and theft claims. Similar trends were experienced with regard to home contents, with a decline in burglary and theft claims. During this period, some insurers provided premium relief, reduced renewal increases, and refunded a portion of premiums. As restrictions have eased, there has been a return to a more normalised claims frequency trend, with adverse weather conditions in many parts of the country adding incremental pressure to claims volumes. Vehicle repair costs have increased well above inflation and the nature of vehicle thefts has changed, with newer and more expensive vehicles now being stolen. Similarly, the average cost of contents and building claims has increased to new levels, with a particular increase experienced in the number of power-surge claims. While you will be aware that rate and sum insured adjustments are routinely performed in our business, the significance of the above claims experience will unfortunately result in incremental increase adjustments over the coming months. As always, increases will remain highly segmented by policyholder and every effort has been made to limit the extent of increases as far as possible. The following excess adjustments have been implemented for Santam & Discovery Insure. Santam Vehicles: Compulsory (basic) vehicle excesses will be increased by R1 000 for all our products. The R0 excess for policyholders over 55 years will remain unaltered. Vehicle glass excesses will remain unaltered. Contents: Excesses for lightning/thunderbolt, power surge, accidental damage, mechanical/electrical/electronic damage will increase by R500 for all our products. Discovery Insure
If you would like us to review your policy please contact William in our Short-term department email: service@daberistic.com Source: Discovery & Santam
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All Medical aid Options would include: Accidental or emergency medical hospitalisation, maternity benefits, chronic illness benefits, oncology benefits, mammogram screening (once every 2 years), pap smear screening (once every 3 years), and prostate cancer screening (once a year). Below we detail each cover and how it works. Hospitalisation Whether your medical aid option is a hospital plan or a savers plan, as long as you are hospitalized in South Africa and obtain the hospitalization pre-authorization, you are covered. In case of emergency hospitalization, the hospital will contact the Medical aid company directly and obtain authorization When hospitalized, the hospital bill and the doctors’ bills are separate. In the case of elective hospitalization (planned procedure), the Medical Aid company will pay the hospital bill in full (in most of the cases). In terms of doctor's fees, medical aid company will pay according to the scheme rate. For example, if the scheme rate for a certain operation is R5,000, but the doctor can decide how much to charge. If the doctor charges R15,000, the Medical Aid company will only pay R5,000, and the remaining R10,000 is your liability. If you have Gap Cover, the the co-payment can be claimed back. If the patient is hospitalized due to an accident, an emergency or critical illness (such as cerebral hemorrhage), the doctor does not charge more than scheme rate, and the Medical Aid company will pay for the medical cost, and this is unlimited. In addition to applying for pre-authorization for hospitalization, you can also apply for pre-authorization with the Medical Aid company if you need to do endoscopy (as out-of-hospital) so that the Medical Aid company will settle the medical expenses. It should be noted that if your endoscopy is done in a hospital or a day hospital, you will need to pay a co-payment; If it is done in the doctor's room, there won’t be a co-payment. What should you do if the doctor asks you to request for pre-authorization? You need to ask the doctor for the following information and provide it to the Medical Aid company: • Medical aid membership number • Name the patient • Reasons for hospitalization or surgical items • Date and time of admission • Name and practice number of doctor • Hospital name and practice number • ICD10 codes and procedure codes Maternity Benefit If you have confirmed your pregnancy with your doctor, you can activate the maternity benefits with the Medical Aid company. After that, your medical aid would compensate 8 maternity check-ups up to scheme rate (about R480). Each obstetrician and gynecologists' charges different fees, you will then need to pay the amount exceeding the scheme rate. If your Gap Cover is with Sirago Ultimate option, 4 out of the 8 times, you may claim back the difference paid. Chronic Benefit If you are diagnosed with chronic illness, you can ask your medical aid broker for a chronic illness benefit application form, and ask your doctor to fill it out and send it to the Medical Aid company (or send it to the broker, who will send it to the Medical Aid company). In this way, you can go to the pharmacy for medicine every month, and the Medical Aid company will pay for the medicine. Cancer If you are diagnosed with cancer, you need your oncologist to provide a treatment plan and histology report to the Medical Aid company. Once the oncology benefit is activated, the first R200k of each cycle (12 months) will be paid in full, up to scheme rate. After that, Medical Aid company will pay 80%, and the remaining 20% will be your own expense. (if you have Gap Cover, the 20% co-payment amount can be claimed back) If your Gap Cover is Sirago's Ultimate option, the Gap cover will also compensate you R25k. Day-to-day Medical Expenses - Medical Savings If you are on a Savers option (or higher), you can enjoy day-to-day benefits. Every January, Discovery gives you your full-year savings which you may use throughout the year, if the savings are not used up by the end of the year, it gets rolled over to the next year and you can accumulate it and earn interest. If you are on a Priority, Comprehensive, or Executive plan, you also enjoy the Above Threshold Benefits, given that you have paid up the Self Payment Gap. What can you use Medical Savings for? You can use your Medical Savings for any out-of-hospital medical-related expenses, including but not limited to doctors' consultations, over-the-counter medication, dentists, glasses, certain co-payments (scopes, out-of-hospital CT/MRI scans), etc. Once the savings are used up, you will then need to pay for the medical expenses from your own pocket, until January the following year. Written by: Tammy Hua If you would like to review your Medical Aid option contact Tammy email: service@daberistic.com (tel)11)658-1333 Ext 106 We sharing 5 part series on Home Insurance Tips to help you know what are the important things you need to ensure are in place to claim effortlessly. This article focuses on Maintenance of your roof. Scenario (Not real names): Jo and Michelle started picking up a leak in their ceiling and water bubbles on their bedroom walls. They then submitted a claim with their insurance to fix the damage. Upon inspection from the insurance company the claim was rejected due to Roof not well maintained. The damage from the leak led to huge costs, so now they’re being prudent and want to Know what they need to do to ensure that they have Roof maintenance. Here are some tip on Roof maintenance 101
For any queries on your House cover contact William or Edmond in our Short-term department email service@daberistic.com tel (011)658-1333 Source: Hollard Over the last two years, we have witnessed the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging around the world, causing countless deaths and immeasurable suffering. Thanks to the rapid development and deployment of COVID vaccines, the situation is starting to be brought under control.
Locally, life insurance companies have experienced many COVID related death claims, increasing their claim costs by billions of Rands. As a result, they reviewed life insurance premium rates and informed brokers that, if a life insurance applicant is not vaccinated against COVID or cannot provide proof of COVID vaccinations, they would load the life insurance premium by up the 50%. Recently, as the COVID infection wave starts to stablise and more people are vaccinated, life insurance companies reviewed their underwriting requirements and relax the conditions accordingly. Liberty says the for life insurance applicants not vaccinated, they will not increase their life insurance premium unless the applicant is over the age of 60. Old Mutual says they will not load the life insurance premium for applicants below the age of 50. Discovery Life also confirms they will not load the life insurance premium. In addition, they provide an incentive: If the life insurance applicant can provide proof of vaccination within the first year of life insurance policy, they will refund up to 100% of the first year policy premiums, based on the client's medical and Vitality status. The move by life assurers to proactively review their underwriting conditions is welcomed, especially in the current inflationary economic environment. Written by: Kevin Yeh, CFP® In partnership with Morningstar: No one likes having to go to a party that they don’t really want to go to. As you begrudgingly accept the invitation, you almost immediately start thinking about all the other ways in which you could have rather spent your time. This sentiment reminds me of the situation we find ourselves in today. I don’t know about you, but I am certainly feeling like 2022 is this type of party, and it’s turning out to be one I don’t necessarily enjoy being at. I guess there is some comfort in knowing I’m not alone - everyone else has been forced to attend as well. In partnership with Morningstar: As we celebrated Women’s Day on 9 August in South Africa, it is only apt that we place the spotlight on female empowerment – not only in terms of the number of women that work in the financial industry but also, in women becoming more empowered through the financial industry and their finances. For our investors investing in Morningstar Managed Portfolios, click below to access the latest performance snapshot, market commentary and market performance summary: Morningstar SA Managed Portfolios Morningstar Global Managed Portfolios (USD) SA Q2 Portfolio Commentary Global Q2 Portfolio Commentary Market Commentary - SA and Global Market Performance Summary - SA and Global |
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