The IQ Health subsidiary of the IQ Business Group has opted to provide an Internet-based claims product, HEALTHe Exchange, to the healthcare industry at no cost, while making its money on a basket of value-add services surrounding the product.
The announcement comes while rival switching companies, Healthbridge and Digital Healthcare Solutions (DHS) battle it out between themselves, even blocking Internet access to rivals in a bid to keep market share.
Chris Sinclair, CEO of IQ Business Group SA, says the free offering comes as a result of software that routes the transaction over the Internet rather than through an industry central switch.
"Because we use the Internet and then route the transaction, our costs are low enough for us to supply the service for free, and development costs on the guaranteed delivery software were also low enough not to impact the cost of the bundled offering of value-adds," says Sinclair.
Medical aids will now have the choice of using the free offering or opting for the existing switched transactions which carry a fee.
Commenting on the state of the market, Sinclair says: "This is a pretty cutthroat market - that much is obvious - but this new offering will give the industry a choice of using the Internet, which as a commodity has very little associated costs, or using the older central switching method which has the charges attached."
Hennie du Plessis, CEO of DHS, says there are ongoing discussions between his company and Healthbridge, and he is confident that an amicable solution will be reached within the next couple of weeks.
However, Du Plessis says that until a conclusion has been reached, the situation will remain unchanged. "To date none of our actions have been reversed," says Du Plessis, referring to the fact that DHS had blocked client access to the Healthbridge servers, the original source of the dispute between the companies.
Reacting to the IQ announcement, Du Plessis says he doesn`t see space for another major player in the market. "Unless we reduce the fragmentation in the market, we are not doing the healthcare industry any favours."
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