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Cost savings for SAMWUMED members due to franchise agreement with Metropolitan Health

11 November 2011 SAMWUMED
Metropolitan Health CE Blum Khan, Dr. Ngubekhaya Gobinca, MD Metropolitan Health  Risk Management, subsidiary of Metropolitan Health. SAMWUMED CEO Neil Nair

Metropolitan Health CE Blum Khan, Dr. Ngubekhaya Gobinca, MD Metropolitan Health Risk Management, subsidiary of Metropolitan Health. SAMWUMED CEO Neil Nair

A leading medical aid scheme that provides municipal and local government workers with quality, affordable healthcare, SAMWUMED, is due to elevate client service levels through improved technological access, post a recent franchise agreement with Metropolitan Health.

The new agreement will provide the Scheme with world-class technology and administration systems from 1 December 2011.

“The franchise model will give us an administrative edge as it provides us with a system and intellectual capacity to ensure that our scheme continues to provide the highest level of administration to our members and service providers,” said Neil Nair, principal officer /CEO of SAMWUMED.”

For our members, this agreement will enable us to improve service levels and provide access to leading technology at no increase in cost. Our non-healthcare costs remain the lowest in the industry. With a proposed increase of 6.5% for 2012, our members can be assured of continued affordable cover.

Metropolitan Health’s chief executive Blum Khan said the arrangement would bring SAMWUMED immediate cost savings. "The franchise arrangement enables self-administered schemes to benefit from our data warehouse, analysis capability and unrivalled buying and negotiating power in the managed-care arena.”

Self-administration enables the Scheme to contain non-healthcare spending, thus improving the availability of benefits for members without drastic contribution increases.

One of the conditions of accreditation as a self-administered scheme is that it maintains a robust administration platform. “Metropolitan Health’s systems stability will assist in this,” Nair said, adding that “Metropolitan Health’s strong public sector presence bodes well for future synergies as NHI is rolled out.”

It is not the first time that SAMWUMED and Metropolitan Health have collaborated. The Scheme was originally run with a version of the software bought from Bankmed (now part of the Metropolitan Health stable), and benefitted from a similar franchise agreement in 2002.

Nair confirmed that a strong motivating factor in the decision to appoint Metropolitan Health was the company’s commitment to the genuine empowerment of their people. It is an accredited Investor in People, which means that its recruitment and retention strategies are in line with the best in the world. As a Level 1 B-BBEE contributor, Metropolitan Health is committed to transformation within the industry and the country at large.

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