Commed under provisional curatorship

The Gauteng High Court has placed Community Medical Aid Scheme (Commed) under provisional curatorship following a successful application by the Registrar of Medical Schemes in terms of the Medical Schemes Act, according to a release by the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS), the regulator of the medical schemes industry.

Judge Bill Prinsloo ordered that Advocate Deon van Wyk be appointed as provisional curator of Commed.

Among the points made by the court in ruling in favour of a curatorship were:

• The history of the registrar and the scheme being at loggerheads, including attempts by the registrar to undertake inspections of the scheme;

• Irregular advance payments made to Allcare, the scheme’s administrator;

• Vexatious allegations made in court that were derogatory of the registrar; and

• The payment of bonuses to the scheme’s principal officer outside her employment contract.

The court also found that Allcare’s chief executive had attended board meetings of the scheme, succeeding in persuading the board to grant contracts to Allcare.

According to the CMS, the registrar has no reason to believe that the scheme is not able to meet its financial obligations to its members and service providers. There is therefore no need for any concern on the part of members and service providers regarding the dayto-day operations of the scheme.

STRATA NOT ACCREDITED

The CMS has withdrawn the accreditation of Strata Healthcare Management as a managed-care organisation with effect from May 31, according to a recent release by the CMS. This follows Strata’s failure to meet the “fit and proper” criteria for rendering medical scheme administration services, as set out in Medical Schemes Act.

The decision, taken by the CMS at a meeting on May 31, was preceded by a council executive committee decision not to renew Strata’s accreditation as a medical scheme administrator in December 2015, due to its failure to meet statutory requirements to render administration services to medical schemes.

Strata previously rendered administration and managedcare services to Medihelp medical scheme. These services are now vested in Medihelp.