adminMashudu Netsianda Senior Court Reporter
THE Bulawayo High Court has ordered Premier Services Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) to pay a Gweru-based eye specialist and her company more than $32,000 in claims from its members. The money is for medical services rendered to PSMAS members between February 2015 and June 2015. The ruling by Justice Nokuthula Moyo follows an application for default judgment by Dr Narendrakumar Somabhai Patel, the director of NV Patel Optical Company.
In court papers, Dr Patel and NV Patel Optical Company were the applicants while PSMAS was cited as the sole respondent.
“The respondent be and hereby ordered to pay the sum of $32,660 being the total due in respect of medical services rendered to respondent’s cardholders being for the period extending from February 2015 to June 2015,” ruled Justice Moyo. The judge also ordered PSMAS to pay the applicants five percent interest per annum from February 2015 to date of payment in full as well as the cost of the suit.
Dr Patel, in her founding affidavit, said her company entered into a written agreement with PSMAS in January 1996 in terms of which they would offer medical services to the respondent’s insured members and submit claims for settlement.
“Pursuant to the agreement, I’ve continuously offered medical services to PSMAS’ insured members and submitted my claims for settlement to the respondent,” said Dr Patel.
Patel’s lawyers, Chitere Chidawanyika and Partners, said on September 3, 2015, they served PSMAS with court papers.
The lawyers said PSMAS subsequently entered an appearance to defend for purposes of delaying the matter and had no bona fide defence at all.
The ruling comes months after PSMAS instructed medical service providers to demand cash upfront from its members intending to receive treatment, saying the move was aimed at preventing its debt to health service providers from ballooning and to avoid further litigation.
More than 30 health service providers have been instructed not to accept the society’s medical aid packages and members who seek their services will have to apply for reimbursement from the society’s offices. PSMAS’s problems have been largely blamed on the mega salaries which were being awarded to ousted chief executive Cuthbert Dube and his executives.
Dube was taking home more than $500,000 in salaries and allowances each month, at a time the medical aid society was failing to pay health service providers.
Online Reporter