Sanlam Healthcare Management announces merger
In line with Sanlam’s strategic focus on growing its medical fund capabilities and becoming a more significant player in this industry, Sanlam Healthcare Management (SHM) today announced that it will merge with medical fund administrator Eternity Private Health (Eternity) (subject to regulatory approval). Eternity is a well-established provider of administration, health risk, managed care and information technology solutions in the medical scheme industry. The transaction will increase the number of lives under administration at SHM to approximately 175 000, will significantly bolster SHM’s IT managed care and administration capabilities and will further broaden Sanlam’s involvement in the affluent and professional markets through Eternity’s administration of the Chartered Accountants Medical Aid Fund (CAMAF).
Anton Gildenhuys, Chairman of SHM, says, “The merger will deliver both growth and diversification to SHM. The administration of the 45 000 CAMAF lives, previously administered by Eternity, will not only provide for growth in SHM, but also represent significant progress in our strategy to offer diversified solutions to the market segments in which we operate – in this case specifically the professional market where we are growing strongly through our Cobalt for Professionals solution.”
Gildenhuys says, “Eternity’s IT capabilities will strengthen SHM’s ability to offer a differentiated and superior service to its clients. Sanlam also identified that Eternity, through its excellence in risk and clinical management, has a very unique and successful approach to managing medical schemes benefits. This is done by working collaboratively with providers to achieve the best cost-effective quality outcome for the members.”
Grant Newton, Eternity’s current group chief executive, who will be heading up the consolidated new entity going forward, says, “In an ever-changing healthcare environment in South Africa, consolidation is necessary to ensure cost-effective excellence. After discussions with a number of the major players, our obvious choice was to merge with Sanlam. The investments and advances Eternity has made in systems and healthcare risk management locally and internationally can now be leveraged aggressively in the South African healthcare market. This will create an advanced and robust organisation, offering an alternative to funds and members seeking flexible services and products.”
Sanlam re-entered the medical scheme industry in 2007 and has since been actively growing its market share and the scope of its business. It currently administers BESTmed, an established open scheme in the South African healthcare funding industry, and in January, Telemed was amalgamated into BESTmed, a move which significantly grew SHM’s member-base.
Eternity’s IT arm, Cumulus Integrated Solutions, will form part of the new group but will retain its independent identity and will be offering its products and services in healthcare administration and employee benefits to the rest of Southern African and African markets.
