Bonitas Medical Fund welcomes the withdrawal of Medscheme’s meritless litigation

Bonitas Medical Fund notes the decision by Medscheme to withdraw its High Court application regarding the Scheme’s recent procurement of its administration and managed healthcare contracts.

This withdrawal is entirely unsurprising to the Scheme as we have consistently maintained that the litigation was an unsustainable attempt to interfere with lawful procurement processes and was baseless.

Contrary to recent claims made by Medscheme, Bonitas clarifies that the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) has not contacted the Scheme regarding any formal expansion of the scope of its Section 44 investigation. While the CMS investigation into earlier 2022 and 2024 tenders remain ongoing, both the regulator and Bonitas have previously confirmed that the more recent appointments of Momentum Health and Private Health Administrators (PHA) fall outside that investigation's original scope. Despite the impression that may have been created, Bonitas is not aware of any change in the regulatory status. Bonitas remains fully committed to co-operating with the CMS with respect to all lawful regulatory matters.

Bonitas has at all times maintained that its actions were sound and strictly aligned with its procurement processes. Every decision regarding the appointment of service providers was made with the sole intention of acting in the best interests of the scheme and its more than 700 000 beneficiaries. Our Principal Officer, Lee Callakoppen, has previously detailed that these procurement processes were lawfully concluded with independent reviews conducted for additional oversight. It is unfortunate that the Scheme has had to endure blatantly baseless allegations and attacks designed to cause harm to its reputation to serve the interests of persons other than its members.

The Scheme’s financial results, which are due to be released at the end of the month, reveal that Bonitas remains in a strong and stable position, which speaks to our long-term strategy for sustainability. As part of the Annual Financial Statements approval for 2025, the Scheme’s auditors conducted a value for money review of new contracts which was positive. We can further confirm that the financial statements were approved without any qualification, but, more importantly, that new appointed service provider contracts were confirmed to have been completed at arm’s length.

It is important to highlight that this matter was never urgent. The application was removed from the urgent court roll as far back as March 2026 due to procedural disputes and a failure to establish a basis for urgency. Furthermore, because the transition to new providers was successfully implemented on 1 June 2026, the interdict sought by Medscheme had become moot, and its prospects of success in court were dim.

Importantly, it has become clear that Medscheme’s decision to withdraw constitutes a capitulation. When called upon to provide the purported evidence of wrongdoing for the purposes of the court case, Medscheme was unable to do so, leaving their allegations untested and unanswered in a court of law. What is more concerning is that these matters have resulted in wasteful expenditure for the Scheme and its members due to having to defend these matters legally. The Scheme will take legal advice regarding the recovery of the legal costs.

It is deeply regrettable that Medscheme, while professing to act in the interests of our members, appears to have been motivated primarily by its own commercial interests in seeking to preserve its 44-year tenure as a service provider. These contracts represent significant financial value - with administration fees and managed care fees totaling approximately R1.8 billion annually - and Medscheme’s actions have forced Bonitas to now recoup significant member funds in defense of an unsustainable legal application that could have been avoided.

Bonitas remains focused on ensuring the continued stability of the Scheme and providing high-quality managed care and administration services to our members under our new partnerships. Additional capacity has been deployed across key servicing areas and operational stability has been achieved with backlogs cleared in claims, oncology authorisations and savings refunds, amongst others. We have communicated additional support touchpoints with our stakeholders and will continue to do our utmost to ensure they receive the care and support they require.