admin
Herald Reporter
Premier Service Medical Aid Society has committed US$16 million every month for settling of claims with various service providers, acting group chief executive officer Dr Farai Muchena has said.
Presenting the state of affairs of the society before a portfolio committee on Health and Child Care in Harare yesterday, Dr Muchena said with assurance from stakeholders, the majority of whom are Government employees to remit subscriptions on time and consistently, PSMAS would be able to pay providers on specified dates.
According to PSMAS, all service providers would receive their payments starting on 27th of every month while pharmacies would be paid on different dates depending on the month of the year.
“I presented that schedule to them (Ministry of Finance) spelling out the dates various service providers would be paid their dues for them to also plan. So, I said this is what I am going to do to make sure that there is consistency and there is transparency then they said go ahead,’ Dr Muchena said.
Government avails US$8 million every month for its members against PSMAS submissions averaging US$9,5 million for the past two months.
Dr Muchena said if this US$8 million was disbursed consistently, PSMAS would be able to pay service providers on time.
He told the parliamentarians that over the years Government has not been able to meet the subscription fee requested by the society resulting in huge financial gaps.
“While the society’s private sector membership has been paying a viable subscription fee, the public sector has been paying a sub-economic fee,” he said.
According to the rates, public sector members on the prestigious plan termed ‘prestige’ were paying US$30 a member while a private sector member on the same plan this time known as ‘pinnacle’ was paying US$90- all getting the same benefits.
Dr Muchena said these sub-economic fees by Government worsened the society’s financial status. He said even with those sub-economic fees, Government failed to remit all its dues. For instance in 2013 alone, PSMAS submissions at the low rates were about US$102 million but Government availed about US$96 million.
Dr Muchena said if PSMAS had levied Government the economic rate during the same period, it would avail about US$141 million.
He said for 2014, PSMAS presented to Government a budget of US$172,7 million but was only allocated US$100 million.
“Because the public sector continues to pay a sub-economic subscription fee, the PSMAS continues to experience serious financial problems which have in turn resulted in it failing to fullfil its mandate,” he said.
However, the parliamentarians were not amused by the society’s management of the little resources at its disposal.
The committee chairperson Dr Ruth Labode said this lack of proper management resulted in the society failing to pay service providers well and at the same time members received a shoddy service.
“PSMAS lacked management to grow the organisation. Instead you concentrated so much on your own welfare,” she said.
Dr Labode however said she was pleased with some of the systems put in place by the society to correct the anomalies.
Other parliamentarians where of the view that PSMAS board composition was over-subscribed by top Government officials at the expense of ordinary employees who are the owners of the society.
They attributed the presence of Government officials on the board to greed saying they knew there were opportunities of swindling the society’s funds.
PSMAS operations are currently run by its management following the retirement of its long time group chief executive officer Dr Cuthbert Dube and self dissolution of the board of directors.
The role of board is being played by the ministry of Health and Child Care, who is also in the process of recruiting an interim manager to bring back sanity at the healthcare funder.
PSMAS membership stands at 802 072 of which 671 133 are civil servants.
Online Reporter