"Balancing benefits with contributions and understanding innovative solutions that reimagine possibilities, ensure long-term stability," says Damian McHugh Head: Health Marketing, Momentum.

With the news of lowering gross domestic product (GDP) growth and a flurry of volatile currency movements, as well as ongoing changes in legislation in the healthcare industry, the assurance that Momentum’s health solutions are stable and more flexible and varied than ever is welcome news for consumers.

Announcing an average annual contribution increase of 10.7% for 2019, Momentum Health cited stability and growth in terms of its financials, product and service offerings in a challenging industry landscape. Momentum, at the same time, announced new ancillary products and changes to existing products, making its offering more holistic and delivering more value to its clients.

Damian McHugh, Head of Health Marketing and Growth at Momentum, says that Momentum’s main focus is ensuring that families have the opportunity to use their health as an asset, as well as providing benefits that add real value.

"While this year's increase may be slightly higher than some other large open schemes in the marketplace, it's a sustainable increase off one of the lowest bases. This is important to note, because our average contribution is lower than any other scheme in the marketplace, so even if our increase is slightly higher than the industry average, the level on which the increase is occurring is still relatively low.

"Momentum Health has again avoided having to use benefit reductions to achieve lower contribution increases," he adds. In fact, the Scheme has added benefits in 2019. In this sense, it is important for consumers to take time in understanding what it is they're paying for.

"Too often, consumers aren’t fully aware of the balance that exists between benefits and contributions and, as a result, focus on finding the plan with the lowest possible contribution. However, there is no point in saving fractionally on contributions if you are ultimately forgoing major benefits that will prove costly to substitute over the long-run. As such, the best approach to medical cover begins with understanding what your needs are, and then designing the best possible solution around these needs."

Practically, for members, McHugh says the aim is to make sure that price remains sustainable, but value increases: "We want to have a contribution that is well-correlated to the market, yet affordable to the consumer, allowing for flexibility around option design.”

Indeed, over the last 20 years, Momentum’s health solutions have been moving the healthcare industry forward with a flexible offering and innovative thinking that has reimagined the possibilities in health and wellness management. Momentum has reinvented what was thought to be the best and made it significantly better through solutions such as Momentum GapCover, Provider Choice, HealthSaver, HealthReturns, Staff Care Solutions and, more recently, Multiply Visa® Card and Multiply for Corporates. Momentum continues to enhance these solutions and introduce new products that add further value.

Momentum Health is also leading artificial intelligence innovation in the industry by building valuable machine learning algorithms in the clinical risk management space. The scheme is currently piloting this technology with members who are diabetic to see whether it is possible to predict which members would be admitted to hospital. This will allow Momentum Health, through its wellness coaches, to intervene earlier and achieve their overall objective of creating improved health for members.

“Our solutions offer more flexibility and choice, allowing our members to harness the cumulative value of families working together. We’re challenging the old ways of thinking to provide a more progressive, long-term, better-suited healthcare solution for you and your family.”

"We believe that members should view their health as an asset for their future journey and remain committed to driving this message through the consistently high level of innovation displayed by Momentum Health, along with the complementary product offerings available from Momentum, such as HealthSaver and HealthReturns," McHugh concludes.

END