Would you join a medical aid if you were perfectly healthy? Most won’t. That’s why we need waiting periods, says Discovery CEO Jonathan Broomberg. Discovery Health Medical Scheme and all other open medical schemes apply to wait periods if a member has had a break in membership of more than 90 days before joining/re-joining a..
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Discovery says:- ‘Without waiting periods, medical aids couldn’t survive,’
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The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) welcomes Special Investigative Unit’s (SIU) investigation
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The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has welcomed the proclamation by President Cyril Ramaphosa on the Special Investigative Unit’s (SIU) investigation into alleged unlawful or improper conduct by employees of the HPCSA. This follows a report by the Ministerial Task Team (MTT) appointed by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi in 2015, to investigate allegations..
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Current medical aid models for end-of-life care will pay for costly in-hospital care but won’t pay for home-based care
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But an all women fintech startup is offering affordable and compassionate healthcare alternatives to SA’s medical schemes. Alignd is the brainchild of Dr Linda Holding, a palliative-trained doctor with 20 years of clinical risk management experience; Victoria Barr, a healthcare economist, and senior director at FTI Consulting; and Shivani Ranchod, a healthcare actuary and academic…
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Cancer is one of the silent killers in the world, starting colorectal cancer screening at 45 would avert deaths
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A Stanford-led study found that increasing the participation of older adults in colorectal cancer screening would help prevent more deaths than expanding testing to people in their 40s. Starting routine colorectal cancer screening at age 45 rather than 50 would decrease US cancer deaths by as much as 11,100 over five years, according to a..
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The Hawks are investigating an alleged fraudulent payout of more than R110-million by the Eastern Cape health department
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The money, desperately needed by hospitals and clinics, apparently found its way into the pockets of senior ANC officials in the province. Former infrastructure boss at the department, Mlamli Tuswa, says his attempts to raise the alarm about this irregular payment were ignored. In an affidavit, submitted to the Hawks’ anti-corruption task team in East..
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The department of health is now really starting to falling apart:- Port Elizabeth’s Provincial Hospital’s last lift to theater broken
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Surgeries had to be delayed at Port Elizabeth’s Provincial Hospital after the only operational lift – to the theatre complex – was declared unsafe by the department of labour. Staff also struggled to get food and medicine to patients. The hospital’s theatres are on the first floor, making an operational lift essential. Eastern Cape department..
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Why is it so important to fix primary healthcare so crucial to making South Africa healthier
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By some measures – healthy life expectancy, obesity, and depression, among others – South Africa is the unhealthiest country on earth. That’s a sobering fact to consider. How has the country got here? To what extent can its unenviable position be regarded as a failure of primary healthcare? Primary healthcare can refer to the care..
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The Cofi Bill (The Conduct of Financial Institutions Bill) brings down regulatory siloes for medical scheme customers
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Healthcare sector stakeholders have long advocated for a single regulator, believing that the current dual framework creates a regulatory arbitrage not conducive to offering the consumer maximum protection. Just as the public and private healthcare sectors need to work together for South Africa to achieve universal healthcare, the same applies to government departments and regulators…
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The Health Professions Council of South Africa says you need to know about INFORMED CONSENT: The costly legal implications if it’s not done right
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The value of keeping proper written records of explanations, discussions and advice leading to the informed consent to avoid protracted legal proceedings for both doctors and patients was highlighted in the Supreme Court of Appeal judgement in the case of Beukes v Smith. The introduction to the ethical guidelines published by the Health Professions Council..
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Medical Technology News South Africa:- Introducing the e-patient
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Almost half the South African population has access to the internet, including 8-million Twitter users and 16-million Facebook users. This digital revolution has unlocked enormous opportunities for the creation of online communities for large-scale engagement around often complex topics like the management of health conditions. Enter the e-patient. A term describing individuals who are proactive..
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