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One of the reasons why Bestmed remains one of the largest open medical schemes in the market is because we continuously strive to provide good value for money and excellent service.

Besides being a self-administered scheme, which brings down the cost of scheme administration, Bestmed has a passionate and highly effective Service Provider Department.  The Service Provider department is made up of 12 trained professionals whose sole purpose is to build and maintain mutually beneficial relationships with medical professionals and service providers.  They invite reputable service providers to join the Bestmed network and negotiate the best rates to ensure that Bestmed members get the most out of their monthly contributions. The team manages a service provider network consisting of more than 15,000 providers spanning, general practitioners, specialists, hospitals, medical device manufacturers, nurses, surgeons, occupational therapists, pathology laboratories, pharmacies, birthing centres and rehabilitation facilities, among others. These are referred to as the Bestmed healthcare provider network, which includes designated service providers (DSP) or preferred providers (PP).

The purpose of a service provider network is to offer the best possible value for  members. When members utilise the services of the Bestmed DSPs and PPs, they will often find that they do not incur co-payments and deductibles because most, if not all of the fees, will be within Scheme rates.

The Bestmed service provider network is one of the largest in the industry and criss-crosses the nation to ensure that members always have a network provider nearby wherever they are in South Africa. This enables us to offer 5 network options as part of our value offer including Beat1 Network, Beat2 Network and Beat3 Network. These options offer the same benefits as the Beat1, 2 and 3 options, however, members who select these options can only use Bestmed network service providers. It allows the Scheme to control the claims expenses, which, in turn, allows us to offer our members the EDO options at a discounted rate on their subscriptions.

Voice of the Patient

The service provider department is also responsible for making sure that the Bestmed service provider network includes the best service providers.  All members and dependants who visit a family practitioner and those who are admitted into hospital are invited to complete a customer satisfaction survey to ensure. We call these Voice of the Patient surveys and they allow members to give us feedback on their experiences. This valuable input helps us to identify areas of improvement in our network and ensure that our members are well taken care off and that they are receiving the best possible treatment every time they visit one of the medical professionals in our network.