Open AccessClumsy patient-friendly regulations could strip 25 000 of MPS cover
Author(s) -
Chris Bateman
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
samj. south african medical journal/south african medical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.527
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 2078-5135
pISSN - 0256-9574
DOI - 10.7196/samj.4564
Subject(s) - medicine , negotiation , cover (algebra) , safe haven , health care , sign (mathematics) , haven , finance , law , medical emergency , actuarial science , business , mechanical engineering , international economics , mathematical analysis , mathematics , combinatorics , political science , economics , engineering
The Medical Protection Society (MPS), a financial and legal haven for 25 000 South African health care practitioners and reliable source of recompense for countless casualties of care, may be legislated out of the country. Unless negotiations scheduled over the next 14 months result in amendments to the regulations, due to kick in this December, the MPS will from December 2011 be unable to protect its members from the legal consequences of any post-2011 adverse event. The new requirement is that private health care practitioners must sign up for cover using only insurers or indemnifiers registered under Section 7 of the Short-term Insurance Act, something the MPS, which is not a short-term insurer, cannot do.