To help mitigate the cost of day-to-day expenses, we introduced the PPS Wallet for Profmed members on 1 January 2022. PPS Wallet is a flexible, intelligent savings account allowing members to control how much they want to save and extending their medical aid benefits. PPS Wallet funds can be used to pay for any healthcare expenses through a seamless process. PPS Gap, another new product introduced for Profmed members, is designed to accommodate the payment shortfall between private and medical aid rates. Profmed members with a qualifying PPS life product qualify for an additional Profit-Share allocation if they also take up PPS Gap. New services introduced during the year included dental risk management for Profmed members, which went live on 1 January 2022 with excellent reception from both members and providers. The disease risk management introduced for De Beers and SEDMED members was equally well received. From a claims perspective, claims for COVID-19-related treatment and hospitalisations declined significantly, but there was an increase in other categories. Claims for elective surgeries – many of which had been on hold during the pandemic – increased, as did the number and size of claims for maternity and cancer cases. Claims for injuries also increased, especially among younger members. We were nevertheless able to meet all our obligations in terms of our service-level agreements with the schemes we administer. From an operations point of view, 2022 was a period of consolidating the innovations and developments of 2021. This included increasing the service centre’s capacity, extending our telehealth services and introducing a digitally enabled outcomes-based managed-care solution. One of our strategic objectives is to extend medical scheme administration beyond our country’s borders. We therefore partnered with Health Risk Management Botswana (HRMB) to tender for the contract to administer the Botswana Public Officers’ Medical Aid Scheme (BPOMAS). BPOMAS is a closed scheme which provides medical aid cover to public service employees as well as employees of parastatals. For this tender, our experience with local government, the military and other government sectors stood us in good stead. The tender was awarded to the HRMB and PPSHA partnership and we are scaling the business to serve the new scheme in 2023. From a development point of view, we were awarded a B-BBEE Level 2 accreditation. We had been working towards this and achieved the accreditation ahead of schedule. We also continue to make substantial donations to the PPS Foundation. This is to fund bursaries for study in the healthcare disciplines. However, bursaries for study in other fields will be awarded on merit. Looking ahead In 2023, we will remain true to our strategic objectives and enrich our service offering. We will also continue to develop innovative ways to manage costs to enhance the member experience. These will include a “healing at home” initiative designed to shorten the length of stay in hospital after surgery and improved support for patients recovering at home. From an affordability point of view, we will continue to work with the schemes we administer to ensure that they can offer affordable solutions tailored to meet the needs of their members. PPSHA continues to keep a steady course and we look forward to a successful year in 2023. PPS GROUP PERFORMANCE AT A GLANCE 42 PPS Group performance at a glance
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