Black medical practitioners have welcomed a high-level report that acknowledges their unfair treatment by top medical aids, and have called for the system to be urgently rectified.
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The highly anticipated report on racism against private health practitioners may have finally been released this week, but the battle is far from over as healthcare practitioners call for the board of the Government Employees Medical Scheme s principal officer, Dr Stan Moloabi, and its board to step down.
On Tuesday, the Council for Medical Scheme s Section 59 investigation panel released its interim report on allegations of racial discrimination by medical schemes, against black, coloured and Indian healthcare practitioners. The report follows the panel s 2019 investigation, stemming from claims made by the private practitioners, who include doctors and other healthcare professionals such as optometrists and physiotherapists.
A recent interim report by the Council of Medical Schemes has found the claims to be true.
It discovered that black general practitioners were more likely to be identified as committing fraud, waste, and abuse of medical schemes than white GPs.
Section 59 Health Dr Prudence Buthelezi said, “we already know what the medical aids use to do to black health professionals. It was racial profiling…they’d look at the invoice of the patient, when you see more than 50 patients they alert you as fraudulent, ask you time you spent with the patient.
COVID-19 has already been stressful enough for the healthcare practitioners but many couldn’t cope with being discriminated against as well.
Interrogation, intimidation of black doctors by medical schemes âworse than what happened during apartheidâ
By Bongani Nkosi
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Johannesburg - The interim report on medical aid schemes released this week has exposed systemic racism that black people have generally continued to face in the country.
On Thursday, black doctors called a media briefing to reply to the report that confirmed their long-standing complaints against medical aids.
Released by a panel chaired by advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, the report revealed that three major schemes subjected African and Indian healthcare practitioners in private practice to unfair racial discrimination between 2012 and 2019.
These were Discovery, the Government Employees Medical Scheme (Gems) and Medscheme.
Medical aids must cure prejudices Sowetan > By Sowetan - 21 January 2021 - 07:41
Think about this: a company advertises employment vacancies for new graduates. A non-negotiable condition is that applicants must own a vehicle, even if the job is not necessarily in transportation.
In the context of inequality in SA, the likelihood is that successful applicants would be from middle class backgrounds and more likely, white.
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