Doctors to turn away patients

Doctors will continue charging co-payments and turning away patients whose medical aid societies would have defied the new Government-approved tariffs, Zimbabwe Medical Association (Zima) secretary-general Dr Shingi Bopoto has said. Dr Bopoto told The Sunday Mail that most societies were remitting only a fraction of gazetted tariffs, forcing medical practitioners to recoup the deficit through co-payments.

"This complete disregard for existing regulations is surprising and worrisome. One has to ask if there is a culture of impunity at some of these medical aid societies. If they are non-compliant with a Statutory Instrument, are they going to honour the promise to pay for the care of their members? "We must take into cognisance the fact that most medical aid societies have not complied with the set medical tariffs . . . Thus, individual members may decide not to attend to members of health insurance companies that are non-compliant with existing regulations."

However, Association of Healthcare Funders of Zimbabwe (Ahfoz) chief executive Ms Shylet Sanyanga shifted the blame to employer-run medical aid societies, saying they often settle claims later than scheduled.

"In most instances, some employer organisations are failing to remit subscriptions on time. This impacts on the ability of the concerned societies to pay claims on time. If there are service providers who are not being paid at all by some medical aid societies, in addition to querying with the medical aid, the providers should also advise the association so that the issue may be investigated."