Sizwe Medical Services, the country’s first 100% black Medical Aid Administrator has re-branded the business, Sechaba Medical Solutions, in its quest to aggressively grow the business, build its independence as an administrator and increase its already strong presence in the low cost sector.

There has been no change in ownership or shareholding structure and so Sechaba Medical Solutions remains a 100% black-owned administrator

Commenting on the rationale for the name change, CEO, Thokozani Magwaza says, “Having both the fund and administrator sharing the name of “Sizwe” has created a lot of confusion among Sizwe Medical Fund members and in the market place in general, and therefore part of the reasoning behind our decision to rebrand has been to create a new and independent identity for the administrator and to differentiate the roles of both the Fund and its administrator.”

Sizwe Medical Fund is in no way affected by the renaming exercise of its administrator and that the Fund’s name does not change, nor do any services change for members. Sizwe Medical Fund continues to be financially strong with a 48,55% reserve level according to the last audited financials. This means the Fund maintains its A+ credit rating according to independent body Global Credit Rating.

Sizwe Medical Services has historically been unequalled in the low cost markets where it has secured its stronghold. Sechaba, however, is now well positioned to play a significant role in offering healthcare service delivery across the board in line with its vision to provide healthcare for all.

When Magwaza, officially took up the reins at SMS earlier this year, top of his agenda was to increase membership growth and reposition SMS as a dominant administrator in the low cost markets by attracting new medical aid Funds into the SMS fold and opening up new revenue streams.

Not six months down the line, Sizwe Medical Services has started to realize that objective with a new name and brand strategy and having just been awarded the administrative contract for Gen health as of 1 July 2007. The open scheme will add around 13 000 principal members to SMS’s book which currently stands at 59 000 principal members. SMS has administered Sizwe Medical Fund for the past 29 years and this relationship still remains strong.

The transition onto the new administration system includes a three-month roll-out plan and full administration of Gen-health by Sechaba Medical Solutions is expected to take place from October.

Established in 1995, Gen-health Medical Scheme is a financially sound scheme with a range of three products including a traditional option, a savings option and a network option.

“We are delighted by Gen-health’s decision to place their confidence in us as an administrator. In terms of my mandate to grow Sechaba Medical Solutions, we are pleased that this objective is being realised within such a short time frame and believe this to be only the beginning of a significant era of growth,” says Magwaza.

“We needed to find a suitable partner for Gen-health and we believe we have found one in Sechaba. We needed an administrator with experience, strong IT capability and high service levels and Sechaba embraces all of these,” says Gen-health curator, Boysie Phehlukwayo.

“We look forward to working together with Sechaba and wish them well as they enter their new era. We believe we can build a strong relationship moving forward.”

Magwaza says that in order to cope with increased regulation, fund administrators need to have systems that can cope with, and adapt to, the continued onslaught of legislative changes. As the demand on systems increases, so the focus shifts away from pure capability to flexibility and seamless transformation.

Sechaba Medical Solutions has a state-of-the-art Epic system that has been specifically customised to meet the needs of the complex South African healthcare environment while meeting world standards. Epic Systems currently provides healthcare software solutions for more than 110-million lives worldwide.

“There seems little debate that in order to survive, medical aids in South Africa will require systems with the necessary flexibility to meet the stringent demands of legislation moving forward. Without a competent system that can seamlessly adapt to its environment, schemes will not be able to cope with legislative demand,” concludes Magwaza.