The minister of health insists that there is nothing sinister about wanting information from medical schemes and said it is aware that some schemes do not want this information to be available as they have a lot to hide.
He was responding on Monday evening to claims made earlier in the day by the DA that requests for the information from medical schemes was a breach of privacy.
The Department of Health has asked medical schemes to pass on the names and addresses of all their members for use in a central government database.
The DA‚ however‚ labelled this unlawful and in breach of privacy. Party spokesman on health Wilmot James said that government had no right to access each member’s personal information.
“The state has no right to our personal information and the Council for Medical Schemes has no business in providing it. It cannot be that national government asks a national institution to break our own laws‚” James said.
Two-year transition period for insurers to phase out primary healthcare policiesInsurance companies are to be granted a two-year transition period to phase out existing primary healthcare insurance policies which they will be prohibited from providing under the final demarcation regulations gazetted by the Treasury on Friday.
The department said the registry would not be collecting personal or private information‚ as the DA claims‚ but was meant to ensure that the public sector is able to identify medical scheme members so that their scheme can be billed for services rendered in the public sector.
The objective is to obtain a summary of information and not individual personal or private information.
Why medical aid costs will riseSicker South Africans are costing medical aids more‚ explaining the next year’s increase in premiums of 10% or more in many schemes.
“Personal medical information of individual members will not be made available. This information is critical for planning so that we appreciate which options members are choosing‚ what is the disease burden in the option‚ age profile‚ geographic distribution‚ etc. It is not solely for research purposes as the DA claims‚” department spokesman Joe Maile said in a statement.
The department also said that a number of medical schemes have contracts with the public sector for their members to access services. However‚ their members failed to identify themselves or provide accurate information regarding their scheme so that their scheme could be billed.
“Consequently a number of medical scheme members are accessing services in the public sector for free whereas they are being billed for these services in the private sector‚” said Maile. – TMG Digital/The Times
Health department defends request for info of medical scheme members
The minister of health insists that there is nothing sinister about wanting information from medical schemes and said it is aware that some schemes do not want this information to be available as they have a lot to hide.
He was responding on Monday evening to claims made earlier in the day by the DA that requests for the information from medical schemes was a breach of privacy.
The Department of Health has asked medical schemes to pass on the names and addresses of all their members for use in a central government database.
The DA‚ however‚ labelled this unlawful and in breach of privacy. Party spokesman on health Wilmot James said that government had no right to access each member’s personal information.
“The state has no right to our personal information and the Council for Medical Schemes has no business in providing it. It cannot be that national government asks a national institution to break our own laws‚” James said.
The department said the registry would not be collecting personal or private information‚ as the DA claims‚ but was meant to ensure that the public sector is able to identify medical scheme members so that their scheme can be billed for services rendered in the public sector.
The objective is to obtain a summary of information and not individual personal or private information.
“Personal medical information of individual members will not be made available. This information is critical for planning so that we appreciate which options members are choosing‚ what is the disease burden in the option‚ age profile‚ geographic distribution‚ etc. It is not solely for research purposes as the DA claims‚” department spokesman Joe Maile said in a statement.
The department also said that a number of medical schemes have contracts with the public sector for their members to access services. However‚ their members failed to identify themselves or provide accurate information regarding their scheme so that their scheme could be billed.
“Consequently a number of medical scheme members are accessing services in the public sector for free whereas they are being billed for these services in the private sector‚” said Maile. – TMG Digital/The Times
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