The battle between Medical Service Providers (MSPs) and the embattled Compensation Fund (CF) about the new regulations that would spell the demise of third party administrators is not over, with the 11th hour withdrawal of the gazetting of the new regulations, writes MedicalBrief. The Bill has met with substantial public criticism and resistance.
The new regulations, published by the CF on 10 September, if gazetted, would mean that the CF would no longer accept nominated bank accounts of agents, including third-party administrators, for repayment of claims. As of 30 September, the fund would have only made payments into the bank accounts of MSPs that provide the service to the injured worker.
However, a media briefing of groups opposed to the regulations – the SA Medical Association and the National Employers’ Association – was cancelled at the 11th hour last week because the Office of the State Attorney sent a letter to the aggrieved parties indicating that the regulations published on 10 September would be withdrawn and that the notice would be gazetted within 30 days.
Democratic Alliance shadow Labour Minister Michael Bagraim said that he had “no faith” that the withdrawal is done on a permanent basis. “The proposed regulations created an enormous backlash and were clearly unpopular.
“The governing party, I believe, has withdrawn it to curry favour with the medical profession to get electoral support. My strong belief is that a new set of regulations will appear shortly after the elections and will be equally as destructive as those temporarily withdrawn.”
Injured Workers’ Action Group (IWAG) – a coalition of affected and concerned parties – spokesperson Tim Hughes earlier said that the government had “gone rogue” with its gazetting strategy. “In gazetting these draconian, irrational, and unreasonable regulations the day after Parliament rose for recess, Minister of Employment & Labour Thulas Nxesi has cynically abused his executive power, to avoid oversight and evade public scrutiny. By doing so, he has undermined core constitutional principles and legislative good practice. ”
Writing recently in MedicalBrief, Bagraim described the Compensation for Occupational Injuries & Diseases Amendment Bill as a “duplicitous attempt” to prevent the win-win intercession of third parties that until now had made it possible for injured workers to receive good treatment and medical practitioners to receive payment from the “dysfunctional, disorganises and diseased” Compensation Fund.
The Sunday Independent reports that Hughes said the Minister of Labour, the Compensation Fund Commissioner and chief director had not provided evidence-based, empirical, rational, justifiable reasons or benefits for section 43(4). [Clause 43 will prohibit the cession of medical invoices by MSP to any financial institutions or third party administrators as collateral, , meaning medical professionals will no longer be prefunded by third party administrators, and will have to submit their claims directly to the CF for reimbursement.] Nor does the Bill’s socio-economic impact assessment provide a cogent reason for section 43(4).
In an opinion piece in Business Day, Hughes wrote that despite all the welcome improvements of the Bill, it “embedded a catastrophic and possibly unconstitutional clause that sought, for no given reason, to prevent medical service providers from ceding their claims to third-party administrators for payment by the fund”.
The consequences of the department’s “Stalingrad” tactic were dire, said Hughes, and many medical service providers would reluctantly cease treating injured workers as they would be unable to afford to.
“Parliament has been outmanoeuvred by the commissioner, which sets a dangerous precedent that undermines the balance of power, oversight and accountability foundations on which our parliamentary democracy is built. An element of the rotten Compensation Fund that works efficiently – namely third-party administrators – risks being put out of business by the regulations, thereby potentially hastening the collapse of the fund itself.”
MedicalBrief article – Only aspect of Compensation Fund that worked now ‘duplicitously' destroyed
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Action group calls for withdrawal of ‘catastrophic’ Compensation Fund regulations
Forensic investigation into 'rot' at Compensation Fund