NHI WILL DOMINATE 2010

As one grows older, it seems that time flies faster. A friend said the other day that he thought 2009 had an extra month in it, but it went by faster anyway. And so we arrived at the dusk of yet an event-filled, busy year in our healthcare industry, and eventually also at the dawn of a new one. I hope that 2010 will be a good one for you, your family and your business.

Perhaps my lasting impression of 2009 is the heated debate around the proposed National Health Insurance system. At Med-e-Mass, and at Bytes Healthcare Solutions, we think that NHI will be the most profound and far-reaching industry development we are likely to experience in our lifetime. Judging by the initial information that became available during early- and mid-2009, NHI will fundamentally and irrevocably change the industry as we know it. Patients, medical schemes and providers will be impacted seriously and begin to behave differently. Medical Schemes, if they exist, will provide an entirely different service. Providers will be accredited by NHI and patients will register with their accredited provider to be eligible for NHI-funded services. Employers could be affected through a healthcare payroll levy and individual income tax might have to increase to fund the scheme. In short, none of us will emerge from it untouched and unaffected.

But, as they say in the classics, it ain’t over until it’s over. Any specific assumptions about the structure, impact, funding, roll-out schedule and anything else about NHI are pure speculation right now. An advisory committee appointed by the Health Minister to be widely representative of industry, is going to thrash out NHI policy and see to it that consultation takes place, aiming at mid-2010 for completion. And even then, we can expect public debate to be a frenzy. We will be watching these developments with great interest and anticipation.

At Med-e-Mass we have already started the process of crafting our strategy for product development, anticipating some of the changes that will be required by private sector medical practices. It is of great importance that we get this right, for the sake of your business and ours. We will keep you informed as 2010 unfolds, and I am sure we are going to have another event-filled, busy healthcare year. Our best wishes to you and yours!

Kind regards

Kind regards

Hennie du Plessis
CEO