NHCPA to launch class action suit against medical aid schemes

The National Health Care Professionals Association (NHCPA) says it will launch a class action lawsuit against medical aid schemes following the release of the Section 59 Investigation Panel interim report, which found that there was “systemic discrimination perpetrated over a number of years,” against black medical practitioners by three healthcare groups.

The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) launched an investigation in 2019 after members of the NHCPA and Solutionist Thinkers made allegations that their members were being racially profiled, harassed and bullied by medical aid schemes. The two organisations also alleged that medical aid schemes would demand confidential clinical information regarding patients and would withhold payments.

Chairperson of the NHCPA Dr Donald Gumede told Moneyweb that the lawsuit will seek to compel the three medical aid schemes implicated in the report – the Government Employees Medical Scheme (Gems), Medscheme and Discovery – to financially compensate the black medical practitioners who have been affected by the “unfair discrimination.”

Read more at original Moneyweb article