All’s well, says Compensation Fund CEO following claim non-payment outcry - Medical Brief 292 - 05 March 2020

All’s well, says Compensation Fund CEO following claim non-payment outcry - Medical Brief 292 - 05 March 2020

Medical Brief 292 - 05 March 2020 

"The Compensation Fund computer system is not broken and is working properly though new registration procedures are more demanding, says the Fund’s CEO, in response to an outcry over the non-payment of claims.

Business Day says Compensation Fund commissioner Vuyo Mafata was responding to the outcry over the non-payment of claims, which prompted affected stakeholders, including medical practitioners, to last week launch the Injured Workers Action Group (IWAG). Among the group’s members are the SA Medical and Dental Practitioners Association, SA Private Ambulance and Emergency Services Association, Occupational Therapy Association and the SA Society of Physiotherapy as well as entities that facilitate payments by the fund to practitioners and worker bodies.

Service providers say that they have not been paid for six months and that their businesses are threatened with closure. The report notes the fund switched off its old computer system in August and replaced it with a new SAP-based system in October. Stakeholders say the new system is dysfunctional as they have difficulty logging in and getting access to it.

Mafata said on Friday that the new system had controls that were lacking in the old system in that it required that claims be submitted by an authorised person. Third parties or agents acting on behalf of employers needed a letter of authority from the employer, otherwise claims could not be submitted.

Mafata suggested a lot of the dissatisfaction with the system came from these third parties. He said there were also many unhappy people who had been stopped from fraudulently submitting claims to the fund. “The system works if you are registered as a user of the system,” he said."

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