THE Public Service Employees Medical Aid Scheme (PSEMAS) owes medical service providers across the country hundreds of millions of dollars.
An internal memo from Consult Care which administers the finances and claims of most medical doctors in Windhoek, says the government medical aid PSEMAS owes more than N$5 million.
The memo seen by The Namibian is dated 26 January 2017, and was addressed to PSEMAS members.
The Namibian understands that the finance ministry, which is the custodian of PSEMAS, apparently owes doctors, hospitals and pharmacists N$180 million.
To date, The Namibian further understands, this figure could be more than N$300 million since the last payments were made in December last year.
As a result of non-payment, some pharmacies and doctors are asking PSEMAS members to pay cash for services and then claim a refund from their medical aid service provider.
Consult Care informed its clientele of the predicament, saying they are strongly considering removing PSEMAS members from the pay runs until the issue has been resolved.
“We are at this time all concerned that the government is on the verge of bankruptcy and we will not be seeing any of these payments any time soon,” the letter reads. Consult Care director Ciske Smith confirmed the letter, adding though that it was an internal memo.
Smith said what was happening was unfortunate for PSEMAS members too because they are now forced to go to state hospitals.
“The doctors need cashflow. If no money is coming from PSEMAS, which is their majority customer, then they cannot take the risk anymore, and members are forced to go to state hospitals,” Smith said.
A sign at the Cottage Family Practice at Swakopmund read “Dear PSEMAS/MAG patients, kindly note that all services must be paid cash upfront. Patients to claim self. Kind regards.”
According to sources at the family practice, it was taking long for government to pay the service providers, which caused a snowball effect. They also got their last payment in December.
“We cannot tell our suppliers to wait three months before we pay them for products. We need to pay them now. This delay in payments from government does not just affect the service providers, but suppliers and the patients too,” a source said.
A number of pharmacies in the north are also experiencing problems of non-payment from PSEMAS.
According to sources who did not want to be named, PSEMAS last made payments in early December to some pharmacies to only clear a third of their November debts at these pharmacies.
Sources there said when they tried to query with Methealth, which is administering the scheme, on the outstanding payments, they were told that government had not released the money to pay the service providers.
A Windhoek resident who just wanted to buy flu medicine at a Khomasdal pharmacy was first asked if he was a PSEMAS member before he was assisted.
Methealth’s CEO Florian Amulungu said he was not in a position to comment, although he and the government were aware of the situation.
“We just process the claims, but the money is in the hands of the ministry,” he stated.
Questions forwarded to the Health Professions Council of Namibia were not answered by the time of going to print, while finance minister Calle Schlettwein referred all questions to his permanent secretary Ericah Shafudah, who said a response would be forthcoming today (Friday).
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