Medical schemes discriminate against Black doctors

702’s Bongani Bingwa speaks with Dr Angelique Coetzee, former chairperson of the South African Medical Association.

Listen below:

Major medical schemes, including Discovery, GEMS, and Medscheme, are discriminating against Black healthcare providers through their fraud, waste, and abuse system.

This is the finding of a Section 59 panel, led by Advocate Thembeka Ngcukaitpobi, which has been handed over to Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi.

The panel found that Black doctors are more likely to have their claims withheld by medical schemes due to fraud investigations.

The South African Medical Association welcomes the findings.

However, certain medical schemes, notably Discovery, have dismissed the claims.

Coetzee says some of the schemes had behaved unethically in their forensic investigations when someone was flagged by their fraud systems, including the alleged recording of surgeons at work.

She says there must be a set of standards applied to all medical schemes moving forward.

“Some of these cases have been going to the health professional’s council, some of them did not even get that far, and doctors just started to give up practising. We need to sort this out. It is not going to go away.”

- Dr Angelique Coetzee, Former chairperson - South African Medical Association

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Medical schemes discriminate against Black doctors – Section 59 report

A section 59 panel report has uncovered systemic injustices and racial biases at major medical aid schemes. Bongani Bingwa interviews Dr Angelique Coetzee.