Medical aid administrator re-brands
FAnews Online joined Sechaba staff and other dignitaries to celebrate the dawning of a new era at Sechaba Medical Solutions (SMS). The re-branding of the business was announced to an appreciative audience at a luncheon held at the company's head offices in Johannesburg on Friday, 20 July 2007.
Sizwe Medical Services (now Sechaba) was founded in 1978 by a group of Soweto doctors. In June 2004, Kwacha Holdings purchased Medscheme's remaining 49% of the business, making it the "first and only wholly black-owned administrator in the South African marketplace."
From Sizwe to Sechaba a re-branding process
Renaming a company is never an easy task and this was the case with Sizwe too. Despite having received a list of 50 names from its marketing agency, the board of Sizwe was unable to choose a suitable name to reflect its ambitions and position in the domestic market. For this reason the board issued a mandate to approach Sizwe staff for a new name.
A competition was organised among staff members to assist in finding a new identity for the company. Five submissions were short-listed and acknowledged at the luncheon, with the winner receiving an all expenses trip to Sun City. Judging by the response from the audience, both the winner and the name "Sechaba" were equally popular!
What impressed us about the function was the obvious synergy between staff and management at the company. It seems there is a mutual respect in the company, with management repeatedly stressing that the company had got to its current position through the dedication and hard work of its staff.
New partnership with Gen-Health
Earlier this year, Thokozani Magwaza took the reigns as CEO of SMS. A mere six months later, the group has announced two significant events. The first was that they had secured the contract to administer the Gen-Health medical scheme from 1 July 2007. The roll-out will take place over a three month period, and all system should be finalised by October 2007.
Gen-Health will add 13,000 principal members to the SMS book. These new members are in addition to 59,000 members already administered by SMS. "We are delighted by Gen-health's decision to place their confidence in us as an administrator. In terms of my mandate to grow Sechaba Medical Solutions, we are pleased that this objective is being realised within such a short time frame and believe this to be only the beginning of a significant era of growth," says Magwaza.
The second event was the re-branding of Sizwe Medical Services to Sechaba Medical Services, announced at the function.
Meeting the future head on
SMS will not attempt a head-on battle with the larger domestic medical aid administrators. Instead the company will focus on growing its business in the niche lower cost segment of the market. Going forward we can probably expect more deals similar to the Gen-Health deal announced earlier. If they play their cards right, SMS should be able to win over some of the smaller medical schemes as the administrative environment streamlines under increased regulatory pressures.
Another of SMS's competitive advantages in will be its state of the art medical aid administration system. The company is using an Epic Systems software solution which is currently used by medical schemes covering some 110 million members around the globe. According to Magwaza there seems little debate that in order to survive, medical aids in South Africa will require systems with the necessary flexibility to meet the stringent demands of legislation moving forward. Without a competent system that can seamlessly adapt to its environment, schemes will not be able to cope with legislative demand.
Sechaba Medical Solutions looks ready to meet the challenges in the industry in the coming years. A dedicated management team, contented staff and the new vision introduced with the Sechaba brand should ensure the company's success in the next decade and beyond.
Editor's thoughts:
Sechaba Medical Services admits it is not ready to compete with medical scheme administration giants such as Medscheme and Discovery. Do you think smaller medical administrators will survive given South Africa's increasingly regulated medical industry? Send your comments to [email protected]
