AID FOR AIDS

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Aid for Aids is the leading HIV disease management programme in the private sector.

OVERVIEW

Aid for Aids (“AfA”) was the first HIV disease management programme introduced into South Africa and still leads in the private sector (both medical schemes and corporates). It also plays a role in collaborating with government-led task teams and forums to challenge the epidemic. AfA continues pursuing opportunities to collaborate with other companies in the Group, including Pharmacy Direct as well as the public sector.

Integration with all wellness, preventative and health promotion initiatives within the Group will be leveraged to ensure that members and beneficiaries include HIV screening as part of their regular health assessments.

To enrol more potentially HIV-positive lives, AfA will leverage the Medscheme network strategy to integrate the management of non-communicable diseases (“NCDs”) and HIV. Medscheme runs face-to-face workshops for family practitioners to integrate into the continuous professional learning of doctors. While AfA already offers online training through its website, AfA will be adding some HIV-specific slots into the training programme, especially regarding the early registration of HIV-positive patients.

UNAIDS has a 90-90-90 campaign to combat HIV/Aids. The third 90 refers to having a suppressed viral load for 90% of those on antiretroviral treatment (“ART”). Viral load suppression is the ultimate goal of treating ART, allowing HIV-infected lives to enjoy a life as full and as close as possible to normal as one without HIV. By 2007, we knew that ART could add approximately 39 years to the life expectancy of a HIV-positive 25-year-old; therefore, ensuring that our registered patients remain on ART is a major goal for AfA.

PERFORMANCE SUMMARY

  • AfA has 80 000 lives under our care.
  • 89% of the lives on ART in AfA have their viral loads suppressed.
  • AfA has a large number of registered lives that have been on treatment for well over 10 years. Understanding this population fits in with worldwide research focus areas. AfA equally intends to publish research of this group of individuals.
  • AfA has been involved with the South African National Aids Council (“SANAC”) to ensure that the country’s reports on the epidemic cover private sector’s role in managing HIV/Aids.

STRATEGY

AfA’s strategy is founded on three pillars: client retention and satisfaction; growth; and efficiency. This strategy is being implemented through the following ongoing activities:

  • Continuous improvement of the service offering with a specific focus on the UNAIDS ambitious treatment targets (90-90-90) which aim to assist with the Aids epidemic
  • Growth by targeting new clients, expanding services to existing clients and expanding into new markets in the NGO space and the public sector – AfA is exploring the potential of Public Private Partnerships to penetrate these new markets
  • Streamlining the existing service delivery model in order to decrease the cost of running the programme without compromising on its quality; this includes greater process automation
AFROCENTRIC
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES		   AFA’S ALIGNMENT TO THESE
Enhance
shareholder value		   AfA has performed very well financially in 2016/17, contributing significantly to the
AfroCentric results.
Deliver exceptional
client service		   AfA client service continues to be exceptional, with the lowest rates of complaints and
queries received regarding service in the Group.

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

With the expansion of the Group, AfA is capable of integrating services with other Group companies. Our collaboration with Pharmacy Direct will ensure improved adherence to medication, resulting in better clinical outcomes such as viral load suppression. AfA intends to continue pursuing value chain optimisation.

Our integration with Medscheme’s Active Disease Risk Management (“ADRM”) programme has been further enhanced – our operational processes follow the same template, taking into account the best of all the managed care products. HIV is now perceived as a manageable chronic condition rather than a life-threatening disease. With consistent ART, the lifespan of an HIV-positive young adult is now almost the same as that of a non-infected adult.

Global disease management systems advocate moving away from single disease management to comprehensive management for all of an individual’s chronic diseases, and the interplay between them – whether communicable or non- communicable. Therefore, AfA offers a client scheme or corporate more holistic patient management, leveraging all the technology developments such as the Electronic Health Record (“EHR”) and wellness activities within the Group.

NCDs are a new pandemic facing South Africa. The greatest risk to AfA is the affordability challenge for South Africans. As medical schemes lose scheme members due to affordability constraints, so too does AfA lose registered patients. The company is committed to find a model that allows for its registered patients to retain their access to treatment and disease support, even if they are compelled to reduce their spend on health insurance. Further, with schemes striving to keep their contributions low, reduction on all expenditure becomes a focus. Therefore, AfA needs to demonstrate its value, while finding service models that ensure the cost of delivering the AfA product is as low as possible.

OUTLOOK

As the country moves towards integration between the public and private sector to serve all South Africans equitably, AfA is poised to offer its services to a larger population of HIV-infected South Africans so that they enjoy the clinical and life expectancy outcomes that the current AfA population have enjoyed for over 10 years.

We aim to provide a valuable service by improving the clinical outcomes of people living with HIV, which in turn reduces the financial risk to employers and medical schemes. AfA is progressing towards achieving the UNAIDS treatment targets, whereby 90% of our patients will have viral loads suppressed.

We were pleased to welcome Bonitas option plan (“BonCap”) and Liberty members into the AfA universe and are looking forward to receiving and assessing their pathology results and then consistently improving their viral load results.

While the outlook for AfA remains favourable, expansion into new markets and significant client growth is challenging in the current environment.

Visit the Aid for Aids website, http://www.aidforaids.co.za/