u Netcare announced yesterday it will stop demanding rebates from medical device and consumable suppliers with effect from the end of this month.
u The South African Medical Device Industry Association (Samed), which represents about 90 medical device suppliers, including a number of large multinationals, announced its commitment to ending the practice of off-invoice rebates.
Tanya Vogt, the chief executive of Samed, says Department of Trade and Industry figures show that about 350 companies deal in medical devices in South Africa. But industry sources say there are as many as 1 000 companies supplying hospitals with devices and consumables. Netcare says it has 900 suppliers of 64 000 products.
u The Department of Health released regulations under the National Health Act relating to the information it will call for to determine and publish guideline tariffs for medical schemes in the form of the National Health Reference Price List (NHRPL). Many medical schemes use the NHRPL as a basis when setting their benefits, which may be paid at NHRPL rates or higher.
The NHRPL is used in the absence of rates negotiated collectively by hospitals, doctors and other healthcare providers with schemes. These negotiations ended in 2003, when the Competition Commission found they amounted to price-fixing.
Last year, the Department of Health took over the job of publishing the NHRPL from the Council for Medical Schemes, but was prevented from doing so by the South African Medical Association, representing doctors, which pointed out that the department did not have the authority to publish this list.
The regulations released this week give the department this authority and also enable it to call for information on hospitals' operating costs and doctors' practice costs before setting the NHRPL rates.
The Competition Act permits regulatory bodies, which are independent and do not have a commercial interest in the prices they charge, to publish pricing guidelines.