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In early August, we hosted a webinar to showcase the opportunity for remote patient monitoring in the African health insurance market, and how this could save insurers money when managing customers with chronic conditions.
Below is a short summary of what was discussed. If you’d like to watch the full recording or download the slides, you can do that here.
The webinar began with an explanation of remote patient monitoring, including Clinitouch technology and a quick description of how the platform works. We then opened the discussion, focusing on the health insurance landscape in Southern and East Africa. Using insights from our panelists at the Department for Business and Trade, we delved into some of the challenges faced in this sector, including high disease burden, fraud cases and improper care management.
Utilising data from our Health Economist, we touched on modelled data scenarios to highlight the potential savings for insures in Kenya, South Africa and Namibia, caring for patients with COPD, heart failure and hypertension. For example, for a South African insurer managing 500 patients with COPD, we presented estimated total net savings of over $191,000 when implementing remote patient monitoring.
The speakers then delved into a live project in Johannesburg, focusing on stablising patients and avoiding/limiting hospital admissions. Early data shows that managing patients with hypertension and ischemic heart disease through Clinitouch reduced the cost of hospital referrals from $175K to just $1.8K.
An explanation of how remote patient monitoring could be added into an insurance model was up next with three options; built into patient premium, added monthly cost or the insurer pays upfront.
Finishing with an interactive Q&A, the audience asked questions about topics discussed on the call, and gave their input on how they think this technology could work in-region.
“Despite achieving a very consistent growth in premiums, the profit is just not coming in for insurers because of the high disease demand. So, a technology like the remote patient monitoring could revolutionise this.”
Lilian Odkeh International Market Advisor for East Africa at the UK Department for Business & Trade
“Some of the technologies that have been embraced have been driven by demand so I think there would be appetite for this in the market. If it's reducing cost in insurers or people's pockets, it would be something that would be embraced.”
Lilian Odkeh
“There's a very high prevalence of hypertension, and managing it early has got to be the right thing to do. It's cost saving if you do it with Clinitouch, because you're reducing face-to-face consultations because the clinician can see that the blood pressure is controlled remotely.”
Jim Swift, Health Economist, Clinitouch
"Getting the engagement of the clinicians is essential. When you have a really engaged clinical champion or clinician, and they're the shop window for this kind of technology, and when they talk about the benefits to a patient, the patients really love it.”
Dr Noel O’Kelly, Medical Director & Co-Founder, Clinitouch
"Most insurers are allergic to anything that incurs cost, so a program like this can be extremely helpful because you have the data, you can see a patient is being monitored in the right way, bringing down your costs for patients with chronic conditions.”
Heyn van Rooyen, Sector Director - Africa | Healthcare and Life Sciences at the UK Department for Business and Trade
Watch the full webinar and view the slides here.
In early August, we hosted a webinar to showcase the opportunity for remote patient monitoring in the African health insurance market, and how this could save insurers money when managing customers with chronic conditions.
Below is a short summary of what was discussed. If you’d like to watch the full recording or download the slides, you can do that here.
The webinar began with an explanation of remote patient monitoring, including Clinitouch technology and a quick description of how the platform works. We then opened the discussion, focusing on the health insurance landscape in Southern and East Africa. Using insights from our panelists at the Department for Business and Trade, we delved into some of the challenges faced in this sector, including high disease burden, fraud cases and improper care management.
Utilising data from our Health Economist, we touched on modelled data scenarios to highlight the potential savings for insures in Kenya, South Africa and Namibia, caring for patients with COPD, heart failure and hypertension. For example, for a South African insurer managing 500 patients with COPD, we presented estimated total net savings of over $191,000 when implementing remote patient monitoring.
The speakers then delved into a live project in Johannesburg, focusing on stablising patients and avoiding/limiting hospital admissions. Early data shows that managing patients with hypertension and ischemic heart disease through Clinitouch reduced the cost of hospital referrals from $175K to just $1.8K.
An explanation of how remote patient monitoring could be added into an insurance model was up next with three options; built into patient premium, added monthly cost or the insurer pays upfront.
Finishing with an interactive Q&A, the audience asked questions about topics discussed on the call, and gave their input on how they think this technology could work in-region.
“Despite achieving a very consistent growth in premiums, the profit is just not coming in for insurers because of the high disease demand. So, a technology like the remote patient monitoring could revolutionise this.”
Lilian Odkeh International Market Advisor for East Africa at the UK Department for Business & Trade
“Some of the technologies that have been embraced have been driven by demand so I think there would be appetite for this in the market. If it's reducing cost in insurers or people's pockets, it would be something that would be embraced.”
Lilian Odkeh
“There's a very high prevalence of hypertension, and managing it early has got to be the right thing to do. It's cost saving if you do it with Clinitouch, because you're reducing face-to-face consultations because the clinician can see that the blood pressure is controlled remotely.”
Jim Swift, Health Economist, Clinitouch
"Getting the engagement of the clinicians is essential. When you have a really engaged clinical champion or clinician, and they're the shop window for this kind of technology, and when they talk about the benefits to a patient, the patients really love it.”
Dr Noel O’Kelly, Medical Director & Co-Founder, Clinitouch
"Most insurers are allergic to anything that incurs cost, so a program like this can be extremely helpful because you have the data, you can see a patient is being monitored in the right way, bringing down your costs for patients with chronic conditions.”
Heyn van Rooyen, Sector Director - Africa | Healthcare and Life Sciences at the UK Department for Business and Trade
Watch the full webinar and view the slides here.
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