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Medical Aids
Health Squared members unlikely to retrieve savings after liquidation
While it is still unclear if members of Health Squared Medical Scheme – which was placed in final liquidation in February 2023 – will...
CMS probes medical aid AGM costs amid hefty premium hikes
Medical schemes, under fire for high premium increases for 2025 – which in most cases will be pegged above 10% – are also being...
HASA urges mandatory medical aid enrolment to reduce public load
The Hospital Association of SA (Hasa) has predicted a massive 50% rise in spending on people reliant on public healthcare, and called for the...
Regulator appeals for ‘reasonable’ medical aid hike
SA’s medical schemes regulator has appealed to the industry to limit 2025 contribution increases to the SA Reserve Bank (SARB’s) inflation forecast of 4.4% plus...
Discovery gap cover maternity ad ‘misleading’, says regulator
Discovery must withdraw an ad offering maternity benefits on gap cover, described by the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) as “misleading” because it did not...
Government's NHI claims are 'fallacies', says BHF
Many of the government’s statements denigrating private healthcare and medical aids – and why it is so critical that South Africa needs National Health...
5 years on, no report on medical schemes’ racial bias inquiry
Five years after the start of an inquiry into alleged racial bias by medical schemes, there is still no final report.
The Council for Medical...
CMS hits back against BHF's abuse claims
The Council for Medical Schemes has denied abusing its power to place schemes under curatorship or wasting money on unnecessary litigation, and instead, has...
Medical schemes lose R28bn to fraud every year
Fraudsters looking for gaps in the healthcare system are contributing to the rising cost of services, but medical schemes are pushing back to reduce...
Stop resistance to NHI, says ANC
While South Africans face the prospect of little or no private healthcare in the future under the National Health Insurance (NHI), in the UK,...
SA medical scheme sector relatively healthy, analysis find
In its latest analysis of the South African medical schemes industry, financial services group Alexforbes said that despite challenges, the sector remains stable.
In its...
What’s driving up medical inflation?
Lifestyle diseases and excessive consultant control are contributors to medical inflation – apart from poor regulatory control of the private sector, which leads to...
Discovery judgments mount amid RAF dispute
Discovery Health says it has obtained judgments totalling more than R170m since the RAF’s controversial directive not to reimburse past medical expenses where a...
CMS backtracks on medical aids increase notices
After its unexpected announcement demanding medical aids withdraw notices of their planned premiums and packages for next year, the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS)...
Low-cost schemes will soften NHI tax burden, argue medical schemes
Medical schemes, feeling the pinch with decreasing membership and bracing for radical upheaval when the National Health Insurance (NHI) kicks in, argue that the...
Court slaps CMS with deadline to explain low-cost schemes hold-up
The Council for Medical Schemes, which has been accused of blocking the introduction of low-cost medical aids in an effort to make the NHI...
CMS inquiry told medical schemes 'a law unto themselves'
Health Department deputy director-general Dr Anban Pillay told the Council for Medical Aid Schemes inquiry into allegations of racial profiling that there were “serious...
High levels of premium inflation 'unavoidable', says Discovery CEO
High premium inflation is unavoidable given ageing membership, a rise in chronic diseases, new medical technology and a government-imposed anti-selection policy, says Dr Jonathan Broomberg,...
SA's medical schemes forced to dip into savings for third year
The Alexander Forbes Health annual Diagnosis report hows that most South African medical aid schemes are, for the third year, paying out more in...
Rising healthcare costs: The problem is not doctors and hospitals
The most important cause of high SA healthcare costs is, the rapidly increasing use of services by medical scheme members, not the prices charged...
GEMS investigates claims that Dr Joe was Dr Google
The Government Employee Medical Scheme (GEMS) has denied reports that it authorised communication staff working at public relations firm Martina Nicholson Associates to give...
CMS powerless to prevent massive pay rises for med fund principal officers
Trustees of the South African Police Service Medical Scheme (Polmed) and LMS Medical Fund approved massive pay rises for their principal officers in 2016,...
GEMS calls time out on Dr Google's house calls
The “House call with Dr Joe” column on the Government Employee Medical Scheme (GEMS) website has been taken down just days after story was...
Dr Google runs GEMS online advice, claim staff
The Government Employee Medical Scheme (GEMS) and a private public relations firm, Martina Nicholson Associations, have been accused of using lay people to give...
Ripple effect of jobs pressure on medical schemes
The poor performance of medical schemes has put pressure on payments made to providers such as Life Healthcare. Business Day reports that the group’s...
Conmed liquidated and members moved to Bonitas
Community Medical Scheme (Commed) is to be liquidated, and its 11,000 members moved over to Bonitas Medical Scheme, Business Day reports the Council for...
Cosatu and Motsoaledi on collision course over NHI
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and his department are on a collision course with Cosatu over the National Health Insurance (NHI), ahead of the governing...
Bonitas claims 'price war' victory in dispute with hospital group
Bonitas, South Africa’s third largest medical scheme, is claiming victory in what it believes is the beginning of a competition and price war with...
Discovery wants Competition Commission to dismiss complaint
Discovery Health Medical Scheme has asked the Competition Commission to dismiss Afrocentric Health’s complaint that it is undercutting competitors, contending it lacked merit.
The dispute between Discovery and Afrocentric currently...
Psychologists hit as med scheme payments dry up
Non-clinical SA psychologists are closing shop in their droves because of a standoff with medical aids that refuse to pay for their services, reports...