Postponement of Family Practitioner (FP)

Our members are important to us, that is why we carefully considered the
feedback received from you during the recent member and stakeholder
sessions, and decided to postpone the implementation of the FP
nomination and specialist referral rules for 2015.

The 30% co-payment that was to be implemented from 2 April 2015 will
not be applied and a rule amendment to this effect will be submitted to the
Registrar of Medical Schemes.

The implementation of specialist referral by a nominated FP has also
been postponed for Ruby, Emerald and Onyx members. Specialist referral
arrangements currently in place for Sapphire and Beryl members will
continue unchanged.

Care coordination continues to be important to improve your healthcare.
By consulting the same FP and not seeing a specialist without referral
by an FP, you will incur less costs. This indicates better control of your
conditions and less complications/hospitalisation as well as your benefits
being preserved for longer. This is why the Scheme is encouraging you to
continue nominating an FP to realise the benefits to you as a member and
the Scheme at large.