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Dentists welcome probe with teeth

The probe into private healthcare has been welcomed by dentists, who allege medical aid administration and broker commissions are driving soaring tariffs at a time when below-inflation payouts are putting them out of business.

Maretha Smit, chief executive officer of the South African Dental Association, said the investigation into private healthcare was in the interest of dentists, as minimum rates were paid by medical schemes while member costs were driven by soaring administration costs and broker commissions.

Recent SA Medical Association research showed that of the R93.2bn spent by schemes in 2010, R34.1bn went to private hospitals and R12.1bn to non-healthcare costs such as administrator and broker fees. Medical specialists got R21.3bn, while general practitioners and dentists were paid R6.8bn and R2.6bn respectively.

Smit said dentists were not adequately reimbursed as oral hygiene was low on medical aid priority lists while set-up costs and equipment were exorbitant. As a result, about four percent of dentists were leaving the country each year, while the drop in medical aid members getting their teeth checked because of inadequate benefits was "unnerving".

In the 2012 annual CMS report, payouts to dentists and dental specialists had declined from 8.4 percent in the 1990s to 3.5 percent in 2012. Smit said that translated into as little as 0.4 percent of medical scheme beneficiaries visiting a dentist at least once year.

She said this was while 41 percent of women and 31 percent of men suffered from oral disease in South Africa. These statistics, Smit said, underscored the urgent need for medical aid schemes to give dentistry higher priority. A Durban-based dentist said medical aid increases to the sector had remained at 5 percent for the past few years.

Colleen Dardagan: The Star