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Fin24 reports that last Tuesday the Council for Medical Scheme's Section 59 Investigation Panel released its interim report into allegations of racial discrimination by medical schemes against black, coloured and Indian healthcare practitioners.
The report followed the panel's 2019 investigation, stemming from claims made by the private practitioners such as doctors and other healthcare professionals, represented by the National Health Care Professionals Association (NHCPA), that medical schemes had withheld their claims based on their race under that guise of fraudulent claims. The report found that some of SA’s largest schemes like the Government Employees Medical Scheme (Gems), Discovery and Medscheme were 1.4 times more likely to finger black doctors for committing fraud, waste and abuse, than their non-black counterparts. The release of the report was contentious after a bid by Gems to interdict its release failed. But the failed move by Gems has raised the ire of the practitioners, who are drafting a letter to Gems asking that its CEO and board should step down. The group believes that as a government owned scheme, Gems should have been the "champion" of their cause and should have romoted the release of the report. NHCPA, chairman, Dr Donald Gumede queried on Friday how Gems could have gone to court over “a report that speaks about your own people being oppressed financially and otherwise.” The association plans on sending its letter early this week.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Penelope Mashego at Fin24
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