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The Premier Service Medical Aid Society, which draws the bulk of its members from the Public Service, owes its service providers about $140 million. The debt was only $38 million a few months ago which means the Medical Aid Society has stopped paying service providers.
The society through its subsidiary Premier Service Medical Investments is struggling to keep adequate stocks of medicines in its pharmacies dotted across the country. Most service providers are now threatening to take legal action against the society for failing to settle claims within the agreed period.
Some of the service providers said they have not been paid since the beginning of the year yet the agreement was that they should be paid within 60 days. The society’s subsidiary, PSMI is said to be failing to pay its employees on time. The situation at PSMAS has been compounded by the fact that treasury has not made disbursements to the society since the beginning of the year although it has allocated $120 million to the society.
The $120 million was expected to be released in batches of $10 million every month. Last month the society’s doctors threatened to down tools following delays in paying their salaries. It is a fact that PSMAS is providing a very crucial service to the civil servants and other members from the private sector.
Civil servants who are members of PSMAS have over the years been able to access quality medical services at its health institutions found in major cities and towns. The society apart from health facilities such as pharmacies, clinics and hospitals, has specialist doctors and as such members are not asked to pay large sums of money before treatment. The pharmacies also provide drugs for free to members and most of these pharmacies are at the society’s hospitals for the convenience of patients.
We applauded the government when it intervened to rescue PSMAS from collapse. The society’s main problem was the “obscene salaries and perks” paid to senior managers which gobbled the bulk of its revenue. The government has since appointed an interim management chaired by Dr Gibson Mhlanga mandated to look into the society’s remuneration structure, critically review its financial position, its constitution and facilitated a forensic audit among other measures.
The management has since slashed the society’s salaries by 90 percent, instituted a forensic audit and restructured the society. We have already alluded to the fact that PSMAS is providing very essential services to the civil servants and government therefore has an obligation to see to it that its workers continue getting these services.
There is therefore urgent need for government to meet its financial obligation which entails releasing at least $10 million to PSMAS every month. The civil servants are contributing towards their health care every month and government is deducting this money which it should forward to PSMAS without delay so that the society is able to pay service providers.
Since the bulk of the society’s members are civil servants, it means the bulk of its revenue comes from government. The society on its part should come up with measures to ensure that it gets returns for investing in the many health facilities dotted throughout the country.
We understand other medical aid societies are using these facilities and there should be able to generate revenue to augment the members’ contributions. The society should never be allowed to collapse because the consequences of the demise of PSMAS are too ghastly to contemplate.
Online Reporter