Black-owned health-care group Afrocentric says that more affordable health-care models have become "an imperative" given that consumers are under intense pressure. Business Day quotes the holding company as saying that the South African operating environment has been "burdened" with economic and political challenges.
South Africa has slipped into a recession, meaning that GDP per capita shrank in the first half. "The broad but adverse commercial impact on consumer disposable incomes, compounded by the increases in medical costs, has not unexpectedly focused the attention of all health-care stakeholders … that alternative models for more affordable health-care delivery has become an imperative," Afrocentric said.
According to the report, Afrocentric provides administration and risk management services to the health-care industry. It has reported a 74.9% rise in profit after tax for the year to June to R384.9m as total revenue increased 11.3%. It said this is a "sound operating result".
"Good progress was made by all … business units, in particular the growing divisional interests in supplementary medical specialities, including the group’s rapidly expanding pharmaceutical operations."
Afrocentric said its fraud management software has been "a great developmental success", having yielded direct savings and recoveries to clients of more than R500m.
[link url="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/companies/healthcare/2018-09-17-afrocentric-health-care-needs-to-be-less-costly/"]Business Day report[/link]