The final report from the Section 59 Investigation Panel, appointed by the CMS to probe allegations of racial profiling and discrimination by medical schemes and their administrators, has been delayed once again until the end of the year - Moneyweb (11 October 2024).
The investigation was launched in 2019 to uncover unfair treatment of healthcare providers based on race and ethnicity and an interim report was published in January 2021, allowing a period for comments by March 2021. The process was delayed again due to further submissions being allowed
According to the interim report, black practitioners were more likely to be found to have committed FWA than their non-black (white) counterparts by Discovery, Medscheme and the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS), which meant there was unfair racial discrimination.”
Meanwhile, the CMS has also launched an inquiry into the high costs incurred by medical schemes in hosting their annual general meetings (AGMs). Preliminary findings show that some schemes are spending exorbitantly on these events, with 33 out of South Africa’s 71 registered schemes collectively incurring R29.2m in AGM-related expenses.