MIP has sponsored a week-long trip to Mauritius for two winners and their partners drawn from an online competition and from attendees to the annual BHF (Board of Healthcare Funders) Conference 2008.
Ben de Beer of Resolution Health and Motlalentao Motsoane of Netcare Rehabilitation Hospital and their partners will each spend a week in Mauritius.
MIP developed a medical administration system that can dynamically respond to fluctuating scenarios in the industry and serves a healthy cross-section of the industry, from Allcare Administrators to Umvuzo Health, Genesis Medical Scheme, Thebe Administrators, Primecure and many more.
"The response to the system demonstration and the competition was overwhelming, with a major proportion of South Africa's 120 registered medical schemes represented," says Don Elliott, sales director at MIP. "The delegates were particularly impressed with how the technology meets the changes that government is driving in the industry, as well as other general developments in the industry."
The BHF Conference 2008, held over four days in Durban in mid-July, covered national health insurance, public-private initiatives and partnerships, managing non-healthcare costs, the role of healthcare brokers, and healthcare quality.
"The conference is a major networking and general industry update event," says Elliott, "and the primary focus this year was on the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) system."
It was a recurring theme across many of the sessions, and Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, expressed her view of its priority for implementation to drive an efficient and equitable health system in South Africa.
One of the major hurdles that the NHI aims to overcome is balancing healthcare spending, the majority of which currently goes to a select few medical schemes, largely excluding the remainder of the industry and government, which picks up the tab for the majority of the population.
The NHI seeks to achieve equitable and quality healthcare by providing universal cover through cross-subsidies with the most probable structure being to align member contributions with ability to pay.
"The upshot is that medical schemes will have to efficiently and effectively manage an increasingly complex environment, without incurring exorbitant cost, where administration speed and accuracy increasingly become competitive differentiators," says Elliott.
One of the main features of MIP's administration system that subsequently attracted delegates' attention is the workflow module that drives activities by taking employees directly to functions they must perform.
Elliott says in addition the fact that MIP's system is home-grown, resulting in an application suite designed from the ground up for local needs, the ability to rapidly respond to any required changes, and local expertise, is a major drawcard for schemes in a quickly evolving environment with a future structure that has yet to be established.
"Another powerful feature that attracted attention is the call centre module that runs hand-in-hand with the other modules and integrates directly into the workflow module," says Elliott. "Any escalation resulting from calls immediately becomes a workflow event with system-prompted activities that lead users directly to their associated tasks."
In addition, the communications interface will be particularly important for medical schemes since it stores all documentation and communications between schemes and members.
"The system retains all bi-directional communications, from SMS to e-mail, fax, PDF documents or any form of communication, between members or schemes," says Elliott.
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