Unfair blame for higher prices

Unfair blame for higher prices - HASA

In its latest annual report (2012/2013), published Tuesday 3 September, the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) has attributed price increases for the increased expenditure on private hospitals by medical schemes. The Hospital Association of South Africa (HASA) says this assigning of "blame" is unfair and incorrect.

"This is unfortunate and misleading - especially notwithstanding the fact that medical scheme membership grew by 1.8% during the period under review in the CMS' report," says HASA CEO, Dr Dumisani Bomela. HASA represents the majority of private hospitals in South Africa.

According to Statistics South Africa (StatsSA), in 2012 hospital price inflation was 5.1%. "The drivers of increased expenditure on private hospital services are manifold from inflation to increased demand for private hospitals, a greater burden of disease, new technology, to name but a few," says Bomela.

Private hospital pricing inflation has been well contained for several years with hospital inflation of 6.9% in 2010; 5.7% in 2011 and 5.1% in 2012 according to StatsSA.