Four reasons why health checks are a powerful lever for insurers

By detecting risk early, reducing claims costs and driving deeper engagement, preventative health checks help create healthier, more sustainable insurance portfolios. Here are four reasons why embedding health assessments into the member journey helps create shared-value for our global partners.

Annual health checks and assessments aren’t just good for your members - they’re a strategic asset for insurers too; preventing illness and identifying health risks long before they escalate.

“By better understanding the numbers and choices impacting our health and wellbeing we can be in a far better position to understand the things we can do to positively impact it,” explains VitalityHealth Deputy CEO Dr Katie Tryon.

Yet human behaviour often stands in the way. People generally assume they’re healthier than they really are. This is known as ‘Optimism Bias’. “The assumption for many people is: ‘I feel OK, so I must be OK’,” Dr Tryon adds.

 

At Vitality, we have long recognised these shifts and understand that the needs of our members, advisers and distributors are evolving rapidly. This presents a powerful opportunity to rethink traditional insurance models.

Below are four insurer relevant benefits of promoting health checks and assessments within the Vitality Programme.

1. Kickstarting behaviour change through digital health reviews

Digital self assessments offer a scalable way to prompt early awareness and encourage positive lifestyle change. By asking members simple questions about their habits, the platform generates a personalised Vitality Age and highlights areas for improvement using a clear traffic light system.

For insurers, this early, personalised feedback drives several strategic benefits:

•     Shifts behaviour earlier, before risks turn into claims.
•     Increases engagement, as members receive immediate insight into their health.
•     Creates a data foundation that enables more personalised interventions later in the journey.

By helping members understand their baseline health, digital reviews become the gateway to deeper participation - and healthier long term outcomes.

2. Annual monitoring of key health markers enables earlier risk detection

Online assessments are a powerful starting point, but clinical measurements take this to a whole new level.

Annual checks assessing BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose offer a more accurate and objective picture of member health. In fact, Vitality data shows members are four times more likely to be identified as at risk for hypertension, cholesterol or glucose issues through clinician-led checks compared with self-reported numbers alone¹.

For insurers, this matters significantly:

•   Early identification of chronic conditions lowers long-term treatment costs.
•   Accurate risk data strengthens actuarial decision-making and future pricing.
•   Timely interventions can prevent conditions from developing into serious, high cost claims.

Conditions such as high blood pressure, if left unmanaged, can lead to heart attack, stroke and other costly complications. Regular monitoring empowers members to take action earlier - significantly reducing preventable claims as a result.

3. Comprehensive assessments help prevent illness and high-cost interventions

Even members who look after their health can have underlying risks that go undetected. Comprehensive assessments, such as full body health screenings, widen the scope of risk identification by analysing key systems including cardiology, kidney function and stroke risk.

Offering deeper assessments at discounted member rates does more than add perceived value - it provides insurers with a preventative tool that can materially reduce future claims:

•    Early detection of risk factors allows intervention at a stage where treatments are simpler and more cost-effective.
•    Broader health insights strengthen population level health strategies.
•    Members feel supported, enhancing satisfaction and retention - both essential levers in long-term portfolio sustainability.

While some markets may not include cancer screening benefits, the broader assessment framework still delivers significant clinical and cost advantages for insurers by identifying cardiometabolic risks and other preventable conditions earlier.

4. Turning data into targeted interventions with personalised health recommendations

Health checks provide data, but actionable insights are what drive behaviour change. This is where Vitality’s Health Priority approach becomes particularly powerful. Delivered as part of Health Assessment feedback to individual members, highlighting the most important health focus for them, the Vitality Programme helps address their specific risk factors - especially around obesity, one of the most significant drivers of non communicable diseases.

For insurers, this approach offers tangible value because it:

•      Targets high-cost risk factors, reducing long-term claims exposure.
•      Keeps members actively engaged, increasing programme effectiveness.
•      Supports sustainable behaviour change, rather than short-term interventions.

A cornerstone of Shared Value Insurance

Health checks sit at the heart of preventative insurance models. They help insurers:

•     Detect risks earlier
•     Prevent the escalation of chronic conditions
•     Lower claims costs
•     Build more engaged and healthier member populations

In short, promoting health checks is not simply a wellness initiative - it is a strategic investment. For global insurance partners offering the Vitality Programme, they are a powerful lever for improving both population health and business performance.

1 VitalityHealth Claims Insights Report 2025