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Category:
Insurance
News /
Medical
Aid / August 2009
Medical Schemes Announce Plans To Amalgamate
Two South
African medical schemes, TeleMed and BESTmed, plan to amalgamate on
1 January 2010 following an agreement between the boards of trustees
of both schemes. Sanlam Healthcare Management (SHM) - which
currently administers the BESTmed scheme and is a full subsidiary of
Sanlam Life - will administer the newly merged BESTmed scheme, and
in the process will significantly grow its member base.
 Dries la
Grange and Leon la Grange, chief executives of BESTmed and TeleMed
respectively, said that the decision had been taken in the best
interests of the members of both schemes who will gain access to a
bigger risk pool and wider client service network.
"South Africa's
medical scheme industry has undergone significant changes not least
of which is the setting up of GEMS (Government Employees Medical
Scheme). Amalgamation between schemes is key to ensuring sustained
growth and competition in the industry," they added.
Bongani
Mncwango, CEO of SHM says that as a relatively new player in this
industry - Sanlam re-entered the medical scheme industry in 2008 -
the group had been actively looking for ways to increase its market
share and the scope of its business. "This amalgamation will help us
grow this portion of our offering to clients and is directly in line
with Sanlam's group strategy of further growing into a diversified
financial services group. SHM has already developed a reputation for
service excellence and the combined scheme will allow us to offer
increasingly competitive rates and increase our footprint both in
South African and other African companies."
The
amalgamated scheme will trade as BESTmed and the parties are subject
to the following conditions before the amalgamation can come into
force.
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Both Boards of Trustees and the Sanlam Healthcare Management Board
must give their final approval for the proposed amalgamation;
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Members of both TeleMed and BESTmed must approve the merger as
required by their Schemes' rules and relevant legislation;
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The Council of Medical Schemes (or the Registrar) as well as the
Competitions Commission must approve the transaction.
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