Roy Watson's Column

 

Stakeholders cry foul at NHRPL timing

Private health care stakeholder, mainly provider  representatives attending the recent Department of Health-convened briefing on submissions for the 2009 National Health Reference Price List (NHRPL) towards the end of February, reacted angrily to the announcement that their submissions had to be in by “no later than 15h00” on April 18 2008.

“When we heard that the department was willing to engage constructively with us,” said one, “we thought that time frames would be part of these discussions. Obviously not!”

Submissions will be published on the DoH website on April 23 and May 7 will be the deadline for comment on submissions.

The process is expected to be completed by mid-September.

Transparency to the fore in Act amendment

After intensive negotiations with private sector hospital representatives at the end of February, health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang announced that an amendment to the National Health Act to cover financing and pricing issues would be tabled in parliament shortly.
Removal of conflicts inherent in price setting, cost containment, and accountability for the cost of health care were among the measures she said the amendment would bring.
Transparent negotiation for fee for services and transparency in the determination of costs would also be ensured by the Act amendment.

CPIX inappropriate pricing measure, say hospitals

The Hospital Association of SA (HASA) said that CPIX was not an accurate benchmark of health care costs in its immediate reaction to the health ministry’s recommendation that hospital tariff increases “be capped at the CPIX rate”.

“CPIX is not used internationally as a benchmark against which medical costs are determined. The private hospital sector remains committed to engaging in constructive discussions with the Minister and her officials in this regard to understand and qualify the basis on which the Department deems CPIX to be an accurate benchmark for private healthcare costs.”

Agreeing that consumer price inflation was an inappropriate measure, Medi-Clinic added in its response that increased use of private hospital services, and not the price of these services, was the key driver of private hospital expenditure by medical schemes.

Department calls on colluders to confess

The Department of Health has appealed to companies involved in any collusive activities to confess to these practices “in the best interests of the patient”.

The appeal was made by DoH spokesman Sibane Mngadi shortly after the Competition Commission had announced in February that it had referred a case of collusion against Adcock Ingram Critical Care (AICC), Dismed Criticare and Thusanong Health Care for prosecution.
“The Competition Commission has indicated that there is evidence of other collusive practices in the healthcare industry,” Mngadi noted in a statement welcoming the measures being taken by the competition authorities.