The most common chronic condition for the period was essential hypertension (high blood pressure) with 376,341 members enrolled.<\/p>\n
Hypothyroidism<\/strong> has seen the greatest increase in enrolled members (12.1%) compared to the previous period.<\/p>\n Other notable jumps include Hypercholesterolaemia<\/strong> aka high cholesterol (9.9%) and\u00a0Bipolar<\/strong> mood<\/strong> disorder<\/strong> (9.1%).<\/p>\n The most costly chronic condition, based on average cost per chronic member, is Ischaemic heart disease with an average cost of R665 per chronic member per month, excluding hospital claims.<\/p>\n “On average, for every R100 paid by DHMS for the treatment of a chronic condition, R77.70 is spent on medicines,” Discovery said.<\/p>\n “Of the members with a registered chronic condition, 46% have multiple chronic conditions.<\/p>\n The most common combination of chronic conditions is hypercholesterolemia and essential hypertension which is the case for 37,835 members, Discovery said.<\/p>\n Claims<\/strong><\/p>\n DHMS said that it paid nearly R60 billion in claims over a year period.<\/p>\n These include:<\/p>\n On average for every R100 paid by DHMS for a claim relating to a hospital admission, R62.70 is paid to the hospital and R17.80 to specialists, Discovery said.<\/p>\n “Over the period, 835 members experienced hospital claims greater than R1 million and 11,798 members experienced hospital claims greater than R250,000.”<\/p>\n DHMS\u00a0 said that members can be admitted to hospital for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n The graph below illustrates that some admissions are less frequent, but very costly, while others may cost relatively less, but can occur much more frequently.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Discovery-claims.png\")
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