Investigation reveals racial bias against black healthcare providers in SA

THE Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) has firmly rejected the long-awaited Section 59 report's findings, which revealed glaring alleged racial bias and discrimination by medical health schemes against black health professionals.

- SIYABONGA SITHOLE

Presented by investigation panel chair Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, the report found systemic procedural unfairness and a deeply entrenched power imbalance that over the years has disproportionately and negatively impacted black medical professionals.

The inquiry commissioned by the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS), which was launched in 2019, scrutinised practices by medical aid schemes such as Discovery, Medscheme and the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) between 2012 and 2019.

“We confirm the findings and recommendations in the interim report that the procedure followed by medical schemes when they claw back monies allegedly owed by practitioners or when they investigate instances of fraud, waste, and abuse is unfair,” said Ngcukaitobi.

Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi made the report public yesterday.

The inquiry was launched after doctors and other practitioners accused medical aid administrators of unfairly targeting them with audits, delaying payments or terminating contracts without clear justification.

This comes after some black healthcare providers and members of Solutionist Thinkers and the NHCPA (National Health Care Professionals Association), in 2019, made allegations that they were being treated unfairly by schemes and administrators, based on race and ethnicity.