Medical schemes report: government slammed for 'lack of interest' in black professionals

Medical schemes Discovery, the Government Employees Medical Scheme (Gems) and Medscheme topped Twitter trends on Tuesday as scores reacted to the findings of a panel appointed by the Council for Medical Schemes, which revealed that some black doctors were unfairly discriminated against between 2012 and 2019.

The report found that black doctors were more likely than their non-black counterparts to be found to have committed fraud, waste and abuse (FWA). 

Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi leads the panel, which was appointed in June 2019 to investigate allegations made by members of the Solutionist Thinkers and the National Health Care Professionals Association.

The EFF welcomed the report, saying it proved that the government has no interest in advancing black professionals.

“The EFF is alarmed but not shocked that the government-owned Gems has a shocking 80% likelihood to racially discriminate against black practitioners in the medical sector.

“It certifies our long-held belief that the South African government has no interest in the development of black professionals and transforming the sector and acts as an agent of the deliberate victimisation of black people,” the EFF said in a statement. 

The party called for accountability.

“The EFF calls for stringent action against all the implicated medical schemes. Furthermore, we call for a complete overhaul of the algorithm systems in place to identify fraud and wastage by medical practitioners and all of those leading these medical schemes to face the full might of the law,” said the EFF. 

Gems, which was found to be 80% more likely to find black doctors guilty of FWA, attempted to block the release of the damning report. TimesLIVE reports that the scheme approached the court just two hours before it was due to be released on Sunday.

However, Pretoria high court judge Colleen Collis criticised the application, saying it had failed to convince the court why the scheme could not have opposed the release earlier.

On social media, many expressed their shock at the findings. Though happy about the work of the panel, some said they don't trust that the government will hold the schemes accountable.

Here are some of the reactions: 

TimesLIVE