We have delivered another strong result, driven by continued policyholder growth, double-digit growth in our Medibank Health business and our disciplined approach to growing and running our business.
Despite the rising costs of living, record numbers of people are continuing to take out health insurance, putting their health and wellbeing first. We’ve seen standout customer growth, increasing policyholders by almost 61,000 (3.2%) over the past 12 months and around another 5,800 in July. Younger people and those taking out health insurance for the first time represent around 70% of our new customers, and we expect to show an increase in market share when the new APRA data is released next week.
The pandemic has triggered a new focus on health and wellbeing, which we expect to continue.
Continuing to support our customers through COVID
We’ve stuck by our commitment not to profit from COVID, and our support now stands at around $682 million. This includes the 7-month deferral of premium increases; cash give backs and ahm extras annual limits rollovers. We continue to assess known permanent net claims savings due to COVID to return to our customers in the future.
We’ve supported around 165,000 people in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia through our COVID Care at Home program, which we delivered through a joint venture with Calvary. Our telehealth teams undertook more than 440,000 digital COVID Care assessments while we also rewarded more than 70,000 customers for getting COVID vaccinations through our Live Better program.
Better value for our customers
We know affordability and value for money is important to our customers. We paid around $5.4 billion in claims and saved our customers around $31.2 million in out-of-pocket costs through Members’ Choice Advantage, which is now one of the largest health provider networks in Australia. We more than doubled our no gap network including short stay across 7 states and territories, forming a new partnership with Healthe Care. Around 64% of Medibank customers will live within 25km of a no gap site by October. We introduced new extras covers to give our Medibank and ahm customers the flexibility to choose and pay for the services they want, checked in with more than half a million customers to make sure they were on the best cover for their needs, and delivered our lowest average premium increase in 21 years.
Delivering leading customer experiences
Our focus on supporting our customers has delivered a high level of customer advocacy for both Medibank and ahm, and our highest ever brand advocacy for our Medibank Group. We continued to simplify and personalise our customers’ experience, expanding the range of claims that could be made through the My Medibank app and integrating more Live Better functionality. We also enhanced our digital self-service channels, with around 42% of service interactions with Medibank customers delivered through self-service channels. More than 1.4 million customers are now registered for the My Medibank app. We also brought Medibank to customers in regional and rural areas, with VANgo – our mobile store – travelling though parts of Queensland and New South Wales.
Supporting our customers’ health and wellbeing
Our Live Better program now has more than half a million members and we continued to reward them for looking after their health. Enrolments in our 8 preventative health programs increased by 40% this year and we launched a new Better Hip pilot based on our successful Better Knee, Better Me program. Our Health Concierge service supported around 27% of Medibank customers going to hospital and launched two new pilot programs – a dietician support service for elderly people at risk of malnutrition and a mental health service to support customers and their families through a psychiatric admission.
We continued to focus on mental health. We piloted a telepsychology clinic in partnership with Myhealth and Medinet designed to reduce wait times for mental health support to two weeks. Our mental health support line usage was up 66% on last year and we saw almost 80,000 people access our Better Minds website or download the app.
Engaging our people
We inspired our people with the launch of our bold new 2030 Vision this year – to create the best health and wellbeing for Australia. Our progressive way of working, focus on health and wellbeing, and commitment to ensuring we are a diverse and inclusive workforce has not only engaged our people, but helped to differentiate ourselves within a highly competitive talent market.
Delivering for shareholders
Our shareholders will receive a fully franked final ordinary dividend of 7.3 cents per share, bringing the total FY22 ordinary dividend to 13.4 cents per share, fully franked.
Our key financials
Continued momentum in our Health Insurance business and strong growth in Medibank Health helped Group operating profit increase 12.5% to $594.1 million. Volatility in financial markets drove a $24.8 million loss in net investment income compared to a $120.0 million gain in FY21, resulting in Group NPAT decreasing 10.7% to $393.9 million.
Further enquiries
For media
Emily Ritchie
Senior Executive, External Affairs
+61 429 642 418
emily.ritchie@medibank.com.au
For investors/analysts
Colette Campbell
Senior Executive, Investor Relations
+61 475 975 770
investor.relations@medibank.com.au
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