Quality assurance

COHSASA is an independent, non-partisan ngo that assists healthcare facilities to provide quality healthcare to all Southern African citizens by a process of empowerment, team-building and continuous quality improvement that is motivated by the goal of accreditation. Our vision is to enable all Southern Africans to receive equitable and quality healthcare and to empower South African healthcare facilities to deliver quality, cost-effective and compassionate care through an integrated quality improvement and accreditation approach.

The Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) has asked the Competition Commission to exempt medical schemes from provisions in the Competition Act that stop them from working as a collective on matters such as setting tariffs and defining patient benefits. The BHF, which represents 85% of SAs medical schemes, said its application was intended to deal with a host of unintended consequences arising from a ruling by the Competition Commission in 2004 that banned collective bargaining in the sector. The ruling was aimed at fostering competition, but was undermining schemes ability to safeguard their economic future, it said .