Some healthcare providers, like physiotherapists and occupational therapists (OTs), who work with the Compensation Fund have started to retrench staff while others have halted operations, following six months of not being able to log claims with the Fund, which is intended to compensate workers who have died or got hurt or sick at work. According to a Fin24 report, several individuals and associations representing allied healthcare workers, who provide support services said that practices are closing down because the Employment and Labour Department has not settled any Compensation Fund claims since October 2019.
Moira Wilson, who has a physiotherapy practice at Netcare’s Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, said physiotherapists, private hospitals, pharmacies and x-ray establishments who initially carried on seeing Compensation Fund patients without getting payment were unable to carry the cost anymore and had started turning them away.
The report says the Compensation Fund was approached for comment and was promised a response. However, none was forthcoming by deadline.
Frustration with the Fund has prompted all affected stakeholders, including medical practitioners, to launch the Injured Workers Action Group (IWAG), reports Business Day. The lobby group is appealing to the government and the fund to come up with a swift solution to the crisis.
Members of IWAG include the SA Medical and Dental Practitioners Association, SA Private Ambulance and Emergency Services Association, Occupational Therapy Association, SA Society of Physiotherapy entities that facilitate payments by the fund to practitioners and worker bodies. IWAG spokesperson Tim Hughes estimated the value of unpaid claims by the fund to be at about R2bn.
Compensation Fund commissioner Vuyo Mafata was not available for comment, the report said.
Meanwhile, to further improve the administration of the State-owned administered compensation system of occupational lung diseases, the Minerals Council South Africa has entered into a three-year partnership, dubbed the co-governance model, with the Medical Bureau for Occupation Disease (MBOD) and the Compensation Commissioner for Occupational Diseases (CCOD).
Mining Weekly reports that this model will be used to implement projects and initiatives that will help the MBOD and the CCOD become an efficient and streamlined compensation fund and administrator.
The council identified three of these as being the most crucial. This includes the digitisation of chest X-rays; creating a network of benefit medical examination service providers; and improving accounting practices.
[link url="https://www.fin24.com/Economy/South-Africa/healthcare-providers-retrench-halt-services-as-compensation-fund-payouts-delayed-20200223"]Full Fin24 report[/link]
[link url="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2020-02-24-lobby-group-formed-to-put-pressure-on-compensation-fund/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=JSE+slumps+as+virus+fuels+market+jitters+%7C%C2%A0Sasol+share+hits+15-year+low+as+the+bad+times+roll+on+%7C%C2%A0SA+bourse+looks+to+new+regions+to+bolster+listings&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businesslive.co.za%2Fbd%2Fnational%2F2020-02-24-lobby-group-formed-to-put-pressure-on-compensation-fund%2F"]Full Business Day report[/link]
[link url="https://www.miningweekly.com/article/stakeholders-join-hands-to-improve-occupational-lung-disease-compensation-system-2020-02-25"]Full Mining Weekly report[/link]