CORPORATE SOLUTIONS
Through our corporate solutions cluster, we seek to deliver integrated health and wellness solutions for the workplace.
ESSENTIALMED LAUNCHED A NEWLOW-COST PRIMARY HEALTH INSURANCE PRODUCTFOR CORPORATES
AFROCENTRIC OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH SHOWEDIMPRESSIVE GROWTH
AWARDED THEBLACK ROCK MINE CONTRACTFOR OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND ASSOCIATED SERVICES
AFROCENTRIC WELLNESS (PREVIOUSLY WELLNESS ODYSSEY) PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT ROLE ACROSS THE COUNTRY, UTILISING ITSSCREENING AND TESTING CAPABILITIES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19.HOWEVER, THE PANDEMIC HAD A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON ITS CORE BUSINESS ACTIVITIES
Revenue (R’m)
Operating costs (R’m)
Operating profit (R’m)
Overview
AfroCentric is uniquely positioned to deliver financial value to both employers and their employees, given the Group’s focus on implementing integrated healthcare solutions that reduce costs by disrupting and creating efficiencies in the healthcare value chain.
The corporate solutions cluster comprises various entities that support the overall aim of offering uniquely integrated, employee-focused health and wellness solutions to corporate and institutional clients. The cluster’s interfacing components seek to contribute to a reduction in primary care costs while increasing productivity and reducing absenteeism in the workplace, delivering tangible savings to employer groups. In this way, our corporate solutions create a virtuous cycle within the greater employer environment that impacts the holistic wellbeing of employees while providing benefits to employers and the scheme.
1.HEALTHIER EMPLOYEES
2.HEALTHIER MEMBERS
3.FEWER CLAIMS
4.A BETTER CLAIMS PROFILE
5.BETTER RESERVES
6.LOWER CONTRIBUTION INCREASES FOR MEMBERS
Our performance
The cluster continues to show significant growth, producing notably improved results with integration efforts coming to fruition.
EssentialMed continued to deliver strong financial growth, including growth in its corporate book. The launch of the new, low-cost AfroCentric primary health insurance product for corporates was a key highlight.
Pleasingly, AfroCentric Occupational Health showed impressive growth, becoming profitable in its second year of trading. This performance was primarily driven by strong partnerships and the contributions of the leadership team, gaining significant contracts in the financial year.
AfroCentric Wellness – previously Wellness Odyssey – was negatively impacted by social distancing measures and their impact on the business’s core offerings. However, the business played a significant role in the fight against COVID-19 through the provision of screening and testing.
AfroCentric WorkCare assisted in developing an integrated approach adopted by the cluster leadership and successfully onboarded major clients. Despite challenges faced due to the pandemic, the entity managed to achieve its budgeted target for the year.
Outlook
COVID-19 created a challenging operating environment for the corporate solutions cluster. However, we are developing programmes and services to meet the pressing needs created by the pandemic while enhancing the growth potential for the cluster.
The outlook for the corporate solutions cluster is positive, given that greater integration of the AfroCentric solutions will result in more significant value being unlocked for corporate clients through efficiency gains in delivery.
AfroCentric’s membership base of over 3.8 million lives includes GEMS, POLMED, Bonitas, Fedhealth and other medical schemes that support South Africa’s frontline workers. For example, through Wellness Odyssey, we have utilised our network of experienced and registered nurses to enable the vaccination of our police force at sites located in all corners of South Africa. Due to the nature of their work dealing with the public daily, ensuring our police force were vaccinated as quickly as possible was critical.
This was the mission of the police force medical scheme, POLMED, which provides health insurance to 80% of South Africa’s police force. Together with AfroCentric, POLMED kicked off the police force vaccination drive on 5 July 2021 by utilising a vaccination site at Orlando Stadium in Soweto, Johannesburg, with the mission of vaccinating 20 000 active police force members in three days – starting with the Minister of Police Bheki Cele.
Neo Khauoe, Principal Officer of POLMED, said none of this would have been possible without the wide range of support from AfroCentric, playing an essential role in the drive to protect South Africa’s police. AfroCentric supported the process with vaccine storage, provision of the nurses needed to administer the vaccines, as well as the supply of all necessary consumables (i.e. syringes, masks, gloves, etc.)
Following the police vaccination drive, POLMED continued to roll out vaccinations at the Tshwane Police Academy, nearby centres and police stations across the country, ensuring all provincial police force members had access to the vaccine.
Our police force members play a critical role in our society at all levels. We must ensure we are protecting them as much as they are protecting us. We were therefore excited to be working in unison with the scheme to achieve this goal. As the country’s largest black-owned healthcare group, we are perfectly positioned to comprehensively provide vaccination support where it is needed most. – Ahmed Banderker, AfroCentric Group CEO