The Board of Healthcare Funders questions the timing and content of the CMS’s report, claiming it ignores stakeholder input and the opposition to low-cost benefit options is politically motivated.
The Board of Health Funders has ‘serious reservations’ about giving the Department of Health the power to manage the block exemption negotiation process.
A regulatory expert believes the judgment misinterpreted key legal principles in its ruling on the RAF’s obligation to reimburse medical schemes.
The case raises questions about whether LCBOs will expand access to affordable private healthcare or threaten the rollout of NHI.
Dr Musa Gumede steps into the role of Registrar of the CMS, succeeding Dr Sipho Kabane, whose tenure was marked by significant challenges and critical industry reforms.
Bestmed states pending rules for low-cost benefit options have further complicated efforts to reduce costs for members.
Launched in 2019, the inquiry sought to investigate allegations of racial profiling by medical schemes. As 2024 draws to a close, the CMS is still battling objections and technical reviews to finalise the report.
Schemes and healthcare professionals are at odds over whether these recoveries are justified, says the Council for Medical Schemes.
With major medical schemes reporting average contribution hikes exceeding 9%, members face tough choices in an increasingly unaffordable healthcare landscape.
Discovery Health Medical Scheme’s contribution adjustments will be more evenly distributed across its members, highlighting the widespread effects of increasing medical inflation on contribution rates.
The Council for Medical Schemes has advised medical schemes to limit their contribution increases for 2025 to 4.4% plus ‘reasonable’ utilisation estimates.
The deterioration in Sizwe Hosmed’s reserves is attributed to ‘benefit under-pricing and historically unreliable budgetary and forecasting processes’.
The signing of the NHI Act does not mean the BHF is letting up in its fight for regulations on low-cost benefit options.
The BHF’s canvassing of key policy issues in the public domain via a ‘deliberately leaked’ lawyer’s letter indicates the organisation ‘has run out of creative ideas’.
The CMS asserts that medical schemes have frequently disregarded the existing appeals procedures, exploiting them to the detriment of members’ interests.
The regulator comes out swinging in its response to the Board of Healthcare Funders’ claims of bullying and curatorship abuse.
The Supreme Court of Appeal’s dismissal of the Council for Medical Schemes’ appeal against providing documents to the Board of Healthcare Funders on low-cost benefit options marks the latest development in the ongoing legal dispute.
