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Judge says case not urgent, strikes it from the court roll.
The decision means the long-awaited report can finally be released.
The Government Employees Medical Scheme says it has been informed report finds that, among other things, that black healthcare providers are unfairly discriminated against on the grounds of race .
The Government Employees Medical Scheme has lost an urgent legal bid to interdict the release of Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi’s scathing interim report on allegations that medical schemes have racially profiling black, coloured and Indian medical practitioners.
GEMS – which provides healthcare benefits to public service employees and is the second-biggest medical scheme in South Africa – and the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF), which represents the majority of South Africa’s medical schemes, on Saturday night launched an urgent application to interdict the release of the report, which was schedu
Investigation finds major medical aid schemes to have racially abused black practitioners Updated
Karabo Tebele
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The Section 59 investigation report was released by a team led
by Advocates Thembeka Ngcukaitobi, Adila Hassim, and Kerry Williams.
The team was appointed to investigate by the Council for
Medical Schemes (CMS) after allegations that medical aid schemes have racially
profiled black practitioners from the National Health Care Professionals Association (NHCPA).
The Pretoria High Court has dismissed the application to have
the report not released by Government Employees Medical Scheme (Gems) and
struck it off the roll.
Advocate Ngcukaitobi says the report revealed that
Panel investigating claims of racism against Medical Schemes
‘Degrading, humiliating, and distressing’ – Section 59 investigation finds medical schemes racially profiled black health practitioners. The findings of investigation stemming from allegations from black doctors were released this week, despite attempts to block in in court.
Note- this story has been updated since it was published to include Discovery Health comment – Court action could not keep the damning findings of racial profiling of black doctors by medical aid schemes from public view.
A High Court judge has handed down a ruling ordering that a report revealing Medical Schemes racial profiling of doctors and health workers should be released to the public.
An investigation panel headed by Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi has found that some of South Africa’s biggest medical aid schemes are guilty of unfair racial discrimination in the outcomes of their fraud, waste and abuse investigations of black healthcare providers.
Less than two hours after the Pretoria High Court struck the Government Employees Medical Scheme’s (GEMS ) attempt to interdict the release of the panel’s interim report from the roll, Ngcukaitobi and his fellow panelists released their main findings – which make scathing findings against GEMS, Medscheme and Discovery. After considering all the evidence and responses, we find that between 2012 and 2019 black practitioners were more likely to be found to have committed fraud, waste and abuse than their non-black (white) counterparts, by Discovery, Medscheme and GEMS, the panel stated.
Daily Sun
The national Health Department has dismissed claims that Minister Zweli Mkhize has blocked the release of the interim report by the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) on alleged racial profiling of health practitioners by medical schemes.
The report is the result of a 2019 probe by the Section 59 Investigation Panel, chaired by advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi. This follows allegations by the National Health Care Professionals Association, that black, coloured and Indian healthcare practitioners were targeted by medical schemes and administrators who withhold funds due to the practitioners after they treat patients, under the guise of alleged fraud or illegal conduct.