Call for probe into medical aid tariffs

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Call for probe into medical aid tariffs

BY STAFF REPORTER

A HARARE resident has written to the Health and Child Care ministry and the Office of the President  and Cabinet demanding an investigation into the tariff structure of one of the country’s leading medical aid providers.

In his letter, Tabani Moyo questioned CIMAS Medical Aid Society’s arbitrary 100% tariff increase  for its United States dollar packages.

Moyo said he was shocked to learn that his monthly subscription had shot to US$304 from US$150.

Moyo said he engaged the company without success, forcing him to seek the intervention of the ministry. According to media reports, CIMAS claimed that the increase was targeted at customers with high usage ratios.

“To the best of my understanding, this is foreign to the medical insurance industry,” Moyo wrote in his letter addressed to Health and Child Care ministry permanent secretary, Jasper Chimedza, dated July 19.

“When there are packages that the society is selling, they define the benefit, which can come to an end or there are shortfalls rather than triggering a 100% hike without consulting the affected persons.”

Moyo said he also approached the Association of HealthCare Funders of Zimbabwe and discovered that CIMAS was not a member.

“There is a possibility that such a large entity operates without regulatory oversight hence the acts of arbitrage and arrogance when the customers attempt to engage the corporate,” he wrote.

The letter was copied to Misheck Sibanda, chief secretary to the president and Cabinet, Health minister Constantino Chiwenga, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube, speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya and CIMAS.

 

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