Medibank has reported a 12.3 per cent increase in group operating profit to $286.5 million with a 3.8 per cent rise in revenue to $3.452 billion for the six months to the end of December 2021.
The company reported policyholder growth of 28,100, comprised of 12,100 for Medibank and 16,000 for ahm. It paid $2.9 billion in private health insurance claims.
The Medibank Health business reported a 36.7 per cent increase in profit to $25.7 million with strong demand for community-based healthcare and COVID-related services partially offsetting the impact of closed borders on its travel insurance business.
“Today we have delivered a strong result showing that our focus on our customers and our strategy to grow as a health company is working," said CEO David Koczkar.
“Health remains the key issue that concerns people in Australia. This focus has seen a positive shift in attitudes towards private health insurance and has seen continued policyholder growth across both the Medibank and ahm brands."
Mr Koczkar said COVID-19 pandemic restrictions continued to impact Medibank customers.
“We’ve always committed to return all permanent net claims savings due to COVID. Our total support now stands at around $463 million and we will continue to assess these permanent net claims savings and return them to our customers," he said.
“And while we are pleased to be able to support our customers throughout the pandemic, now is the right time for governments to minimise future use of restrictions to elective surgery. These restrictions for surgeries have impacted the quality of life for our customers and increased the pressure in the health system.
"While some surgeries may be called elective, for our customers they are anything but. The recent easing of restrictions on some surgeries is welcome but we believe a plan is needed to avoid these restrictions for patients in the future."
Medibank also announced the appointment of Kathryn Fagg AO and Peter Everingham as non-executive directors.
Medibank chairman Mike Wilkins said, “We are delighted that Kathryn and Peter have accepted our invitation to join the Board. As our company continues to grow, and as we continue to increase our focus on delivering for our customers, we are pleased to be able to appoint two new directors with such extensive experience and a proven track record.
“Kathryn is well known for her directorships and executive roles across a wide range of listed companies and industries. Given her leadership skills, extensive and diverse commercial and other experience and business capability, Kathryn will be a tremendous addition to the Board and we look forward to the contribution she will make.
“I am pleased to be enhancing our customer and digital platform capability through Peter’s appointment. Having deep corporate and strategy experience, particularly as an executive in the digital and consumer sectors, Peter brings an increased focus on how to deliver for our customers through digital platforms, which is a key priority for our company, and he will be a valuable addition to our Board."