A recent trend in the life and health insurance market has been working in consumers’ favour. As insurance providers vie to gain a competitive edge in an increasingly crowded space, several have begun adding health and wellbeing programs to their product offerings, presenting their customers with various rewards and incentives for improving their health and fitness.
With effort comes reward
One of the first of these programs to be introduced to the Australian market was AIA Vitality, a comprehensive science-backed health and wellbeing program that AIA Australia has now been running for six years.
Grounded in behavioural economics, AIA Vitality works by empowering its members to learn more about their health and encouraging them to take steps to improve it. Upon activating their membership, an AIA Vitality member can immediately start to earn AIA Vitality Points for undertaking actions and activities that serve to improve their physical health and mental wellbeing. These include going for health checks, engaging in physical activity and tracking their nutritional intake. By earning AIA Vitality points, members increase their AIA Vitality Status. The higher their status, the greater the rewards.
Since the program’s introduction to the Australian market, AIA Vitality has partnered with some of the country’s leading retail, entertainment, travel and lifestyle brands to create a range of rewards that includes e-gift cards (up to $500 worth per membership year), airfare cashbacks, half-price movie tickets and discounted insurance premiums, gym memberships and fitness devices.
Striving for Healthier, Longer, Better lives
At AIA Australia we believe we have a moral responsibility to do the right thing by our customers at every stage of their lives, not only at claim time. Our goal is to help our customers live healthier, longer, better lives, and we recognise that the key to achieving lasting change is making healthy behaviours and regular exercise a part of everyday life. That’s why we offer AIA Vitality members the opportunity to keep earning rewards on an ongoing basis: members retain the AIA Vitality Status they achieved during their previous membership year while points-earning activities reset, and our Active Benefits offer weekly incentives to members who reach their personalised physical activity target. Together, more than 188,000 Australian AIA Vitality members have taken over 167 billion steps and completed more than 350,000 Mental Wellbeing Assessments.
As part of our commitment to helping our customers better understand their insurance, we’ve also been working to increase the levels of engagement AIA Vitality members can enjoy with their super funds. Establishing a regular point of interaction with AIA Vitality members via a super fund not only enables a member to improve their physical health, it also allows them to engage with their financial wellbeing through their insurance and superannuation in ways that many otherwise wouldn’t. Another method of connecting to AIA Vitality members is OneLife, the digital newsletter and website championing AIA Vitality’s four pillars of wellbeing – Move Well, Think Well, Eat Well and Plan Well.
The next step in the journey
In line with our focus on continually innovating and enhancing the AIA Vitality program, going forward we’ll be looking at developing new ways to measure the mental wellbeing of our members and minimise the impact of mental illness and ill-health. We’re also working with established providers to recommend and incentivise appropriate interventions. One of the areas in which we’ve seen the greatest rise in claims recently has been those relating to anxiety and/or depression, so it’s an area where we’re very keen to expand our current suite of resources and tools. It’s this ongoing commitment – to prevent as well as protect – that puts AIA Australia in a unique position to continue achieving our purpose of Making A Difference in people’s lives.
Copyright © 2020 AIA Australia Limited (ABN 79 004 837 861 AFSL 230043). This is general information only, without taking into account factors like the objectives, financial situation, needs or personal circumstances of any individual and is not intended to be financial, legal, tax, medical, nutritional, health, fitness or other advice. Before making a decision to acquire or continue to hold any product, individuals should consider the appropriateness of the information, having regard to these factors, and after viewing the PDS and any relevant product information and terms and conditions available at www.aia.com.au
