Between 2012 and 2019, black practitioners were more likely to be found to have committed fraud, waste and abuse than their white counterparts by Discovery, Medscheme and the Government Employees Medical Scheme.
This is the interim finding of a panel appointed by the Council for Medical Schemes to investigate allegations by a number of health-care professionals that they were being treated unfairly by medical aid schemes based on race and ethnicity.
The panel, let by advocate Tembeka ngcukaitobi found that there was unfair racial discrimination against some black practitioners by three medical schemes.
However, it said it did not find evidence of explicit racial bias in the algorithms and methods that the administrators and schemes used to identify fraud, waste and abuse.
The panel was appointed in 2019 to investigate allegations made by members of the Solutionist Thinkers and the National Health Care Professionals Association.
The panel found that Discovery was 35% more likely to identify black providers as having committed fraud, waste and abuse, Gems was 80% more likely to identify black providers as guilty of the same, while Medscheme was 330% more likely to identify black providers as guilty of fraud, waste and abuse.