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Our benefit enhancements and changes, focus on preventative care, and contribution increases for 2023 were announced at the beginning of October.

The announcement follows the Scheme’s 3.5% growth in principal members upping the total beneficiaries under our care to 209 000. This growth is also reflected in the improved customer satisfaction as validated by external market research, and the Scheme having one of the lowest contribution increases in the country for 2022. 

“Our commitment to offering our members value for their medical aid contributions, while remaining competitive in the market, were key drivers for the 2023 benefit enhancements and changes,” says Leo Dlamini, Chief Executive Officer/Principal Officer at Bestmed Medical Scheme.

The enhanced benefit and subscription changes from 2022 will continue, which includes co-payments removed on Beat options in-hospital, cover of mammograms on all options, only first three children paying subscription, improved optical benefits on all options (if applicable to the chosen option), payment of high-cost medicines (for prescribed minimum benefits [PMBs]) from Scheme tariff directly and not from day-to-day benefits first, child dependant age increased from 21 to 24 years, and reduced co-payments on non-formulary medicines across all options.

Bestmed has announced an average weighted contribution increase of 8.5%, alongside an average weighted benefit limit increase of 5.7%. However, it says its primary focus has been investing substantially in its 14 preventative care and 9 managed care programmes.

We want to continue offering our members long-term benefits, ensuring you have cover when you require medical attention, from paying doctors to covering hospital stays. Additionally, we encourage you to access and utilise the preventative care benefits which help keep you healthy and prevent possible medical issues that may arise from not having access to these benefits. “While we have introduced some changes to our product range benefits and enriched some our existing benefits, our members can rest assured that they will still have access to the extensive range of preventative care benefits across our entire product range, including vaccinations, mammograms, paediatric immunisations, female contraceptives, a back and neck programme, and baby growth and development assessments.  Preventative healthcare empowers people to take a proactive approach to manage their health, providing far-reaching and long-lasting health benefits. It also helps lower the amount of money our members spend on doctor's visits and medication by preventing serious diseases before they occur,” Dlamini continues.

“Heading into 2023, we're focusing on providing clients with significantly more preventative care benefits suitable for members across age groups," adds Dlamini.

In addition to its extensive preventative healthcare, Bestmed offers members maternity care benefits across every product range and nine holistic managed care programmes, including:

• Oncology
• Diabetes
• HIV/AIDS
• Maternity
• Back and neck preventative
• Wound care
• Substance abuse 
• Dialysis 
• Stoma care

We also encourage you to improve and maintain your overall health in 2023, and we hope that the introduction of the additional wellness journey, the Emotional Wellbeing Journey to our two existing Get Active (fitness) and Nutritional Health Journeys, will help you achieve this. You can access the three Tempo wellness journeys via the Member portal on the website or via the Bestmed App. These online platforms will allow you to manage your physical activity, nutrition, mental wellbeing, general health, and high-risk chronic conditions with greater ease.

The last two years have seen challenging economic conditions clouded by ongoing COVID-19 and tough competition in the open medical schemes market, which has not seen growth in recent years. However, despite this, we will continue our focus on providing quality and superior healthcare cover to you, our valued members, at an affordable price in the year ahead.