Council releases figures for medical schemes in annual report

The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) has published its 2010/11 Annual Report, which reveals the operations of medical schemes in 2010.

Key findings include:

• The number of registered medical schemes dropped from 110 in 2009 to 100 in 2010
• In 2010, there were 27 open medical schemes and 73 restricted membership schemes
• In 2010, medical schemes spent 11.3% more on healthcare benefits and collected 13.7% more in contributions than they did in 2009
• Contributions increased from R84.9 billion in 2009 to R96.5bn in 2010
• Healthcare expenditure increased from R76.3bn in 2009 to R84.7bn in 2010
• The risk claims ratio for all schemes decreased to 87.3% in 2010 from 89.3% in 2009 [this is the proportion of healthcare costs as a percentage of risk contributions].

The CMS says it expects the number of registered medical schemes to drop further due to predictions of more scheme amalgamations and liquidations.