The spread of the Coronavirus is making headlines daily, with cases in South Africa increasing daily too. Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement regarding travel bans, school closures and the cancelling of major sporting events, Insurance Companies Liberty, Discovery, Hollard, Momentum and PPS want to set your mind at ease with regards to your Life policies and coverage with these institutions.

Liberty

Life: If a Liberty policyholder dies from the virus, death benefits will be payable.
Medical Lifestyle: If the policyholder is hospitalised and meets any of the claim payment criteria, the appropriate benefits will be paid.
Income disability: If the policyholder is unable to work for a period of time exceeding the waiting period on the policy, the income disability benefits will be paid.
Living Lifestyle and Lump sum disability benefits: The virus does not seem to have any complications that would result in a payment under a Living Lifestyle benefit category, nor does it seem to cause long-term disablement as there is no clear permanent lung damage after the infection has cleared. However, we are still in the early stages of understanding the full impact of the infection so this may change. Clients’ claims will be assessed case-by-case, based on the impact the virus has had on their health and their life.
Note that for all claims, normal investigative processes will be followed. All valid claims will be paid.

Discovery

All Discovery Life policyholders can be reassured that they remain comprehensively covered with their Discovery Life benefits. Under the Life Cover, Capital Disability and Severe Illness Benefits all valid claims as a result of COVID-19 are fully covered under our policies whether the disease is contracted locally or abroad.
The Income Continuation Benefit, which provides cover for loss of income due to illness, injury and disability, provides the following protection:
• On policies with 1, 3, 6 or 12-month waiting periods:
We will process all valid claims as usual as long as the client has been booked off work for longer than their waiting period after a laboratory test has confirmed COVID-19.
• For policies with a seven-day waiting period:
If a laboratory test confirms COVID-19, the client will be able to claim if they are booked off work for more than seven days from the date of the positive test result. We will pay the claim retrospectively from the date of the positive test result for as long as the client with COVID-19 is unable to perform their nominated occupation due to the disease, subject to a minimum guaranteed payment of 14 days*.
* The 14-day guaranteed payment for confirmed COVID-19 claims will be reviewed from time to time and take into account medical guidelines at the time.

Hollard

As a rule of thumb, your life policy should pay out if you die from something like the coronavirus in your home country,” says the chief executive of MiWayLife, Craig Baker. “You need to check for things like geographies that may be excluded by your life insurance policy and the type of work that you do if, for example, you have an occupation that could put you at high risk for something like the coronavirus.”
Typically, life insurers plan for epidemics and pandemic risks, says Marius Botha, the managing director of life insurer Stangen.
“Policies for our existing customers will not be affected by the outbreak,” Botha says. “But for new customers and sales, we’re working with our reinsurers to understand the progression of the disease. New clients must disclose if they might have the virus, so we can refer them for review. Coronavirus is an elevated or emerging risk – and we don’t believe in acting prematurely.”
For group benefits, employers must examine what occupational disability and business interruption plans are in place. Botha says if contracting the virus results in a temporary disability, and staff have used their sick leave, such products would pay out.

Momentum

Momentum reaffirms that our clients are covered, protected and supported – aligned to the specific medical scheme and life insurance products they selected.
We reassure our clients that there are no exclusions on any of our Myriad life insurance benefits (life-, critical illness- and disability cover) with regards to the Coronavirus. This means that our clients’ cover remains intact, regardless of the virus and where they have travelled or intend to travel. We will continue to pay all valid claims.

PPS

Given that this is a unique situation in the history of South Africa, we and other stakeholders will constantly grow our understanding of this virus and our response as insurers i.e. this protocol will continue to evolve. As the COVID-19 is a novel virus, medical science is continuously learning as the epidemic grows and experience is gained. PPS will therefore monitor progress and adapt any policy guidelines accordingly. We encourage all members to continue to submit claims to PPS and these will be assessed in line with the claims definitions of the products or benefits held by the member on a case by case basis
If a patient is identified as a Person Under Investigation (PUI), their treating medical practitioner should follow the NICD protocols to test for COVID-19 and notify the relevant district or provincial communicable disease co-ordinators. The NICD will also communicate the appropriate treatment and isolation protocols, for ongoing case management of the patient, to the treating medical practitioner and this should be reflected in the DBD (Declaration by Doctor) claim form or shared with PPS in follow-up communications. PPS will also consider Sickness Benefit claims for an asymptomatic person (who is therefore not classified as a Person Under Investigation according to NICD guidelines), in the following circumstances: where a South African government authority (e.g. SA Minister of Health) has mandated that the asymptomatic person be quarantined following confirmed or probable exposure to COVID-19, at a designated hospital, for optimal medical supervision and monitoring by a medical practitioner for a period determined by said authority. Where a Sickness Benefit claim is received from a PPS member residing in a country outside of South Africa at the time of the claim event, PPS will apply the NICD guidelines in respect of the claim as far as possible, while remaining cognisant of any variation that may apply given that government’s published health protocols in respect of COVID-19.

PPS Disability products and benefits:

Contracting COVID-19 is not of itself a defined disability event, but should it result in a disability it will be assessed under the normal disability claim definitions.

PPS Critical Illness products and benefits:

Contracting COVID-19 is not of itself a defined critical illness event, but should it result in a critical illness event it will be assessed under the normal critical illness claim definitions.

PPS Life products and benefits:

If a member dies as a result of contracting COVID-19, the death claim will be assessed in terms of the PPS death claims process.