As we approach the end of another year, we would like to thank you for your cooperation and support throughout 2018, and wish you and your management team a prosperous 2019.
We would like to also take this opportunity to reaffirm that SAMWUMED Remains Open for Business, despite being placed under Curatorship since May this year.
I thought it would be important to note that Curatorship is an intervention put in place by the Council of Medical Schemes (CMS), wherein a Scheme’s existing senior leadership, for instance, the Principal Officer (PO) and the Board of Trustees are removed and replaced by an interim person known as a Curator. The primary reason for such an intervention generally is to protect Members’ interests and ensure the Scheme’s long term sustainability.
In the case of SAMWUMED, the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) recommended and successfully applied for Curatorship of the Scheme, mainly due to non-compliance of the Scheme’s Board of Trustees to their governance rules. It is anticipated that the Scheme will remain under Curatorship for a period of about 12 months, depending on the resolution of matters that necessitated the application for Curatorship in the first instance.
As an important stakeholder, we would like to assure you that SAMWUMED remains fully operational and is being expertly managed on a day to day basis by the staff under the leadership of the Curator.
In addition, the Scheme is financially healthy, and is still one of the Three Most Sustainable Medical Schemes in South Africa,as rated by the Alexander Forbes Sustainability Index Report, in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
For your assurance, we can affirm that the Scheme will have about R108 million at year end of 2018; and this is at a time when most schemes are making losses.
We remain as committed as ever to our more than 80 000 lives that we cover who are spread throughout South Africa. To this extent we reiterate that our 2019 benefits have been significantly improved for the benefit of our members. We continue to diligently process and pay our members’ claims on a bi-weekly basis.
We shall endeavour to keep you abreast with future plans and developments within the Scheme in the New Year through various means, including formal communication such as this one, SMS’s and through our Sales Teams.
Once again we wish you as our Service Providers and your families the best for the holidays and a prosperous 2019.