SAMWUMED INNOVATES TO HELP LOCAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES REMAIN HEALTHY AND COVERED

Service excellence is a fundamental principle at SAMWUMED! This is a principle that we are putting all of our focus on, to ensure we remain the Scheme of choice for local government and related entities. At a time where the local government sector is crippled with many challenges including the effect of loadshedding, administration issues and an increasing rate of illhealth in workplaces, SAMWUMED is dedicated to ensuring that we put members’ needs first. As a healthcare facilitator, our purpose is to support communities to live healthy and happier lives. To this end, we have improved and in some instances, working towards enhancement of our communication platforms including but not limited to:

• An enhanced Call Centre Solution which includes a self-service option for our members and service providers who call in.

• Introduced a Monthly Mobile member education e-booklet, which is sent to all our members on a bi-monthly basis promoting our wellness programmes.

• An enhanced SAMWUMED Mobile

Application, allowing members to access their available benefits, recent claims, statements and Tax certificates in real-time.

• We are also looking at Artificial Intelligence (AI) to communicate with our members via a Whatsapp for Business platform for example.

• Our Website continues to be a great source of information with easy navigation and web chat functionality, meaning members do not have to wait to call into the Call Center, they can simply visit our website and chat to an agent.

Our new innovations, improved service delivery, and staff training initiatives give confidence that SAMWUMED is indeed a sustainable Scheme.

That said, we cannot ignore the external challenges that affect our members. The international recession and decline in the local economy, has generally had a negative impact on Schemes’ growth in the past three (3) years. It has come to a point where many Municipal employees find themselves choosing between buying medical aid cover for their loved ones versus buying bread, affording transport costs, or keeping the lights on at home amongst other challenges. That is why our deliberations when it comes to members’ contribution increases, whilst we have to factor in the unexpected rise in health costs, pandemics etc, we still remain a highly competitive Scheme from a premium perspective that our members pay.

SAMWUMED also prides itself in being the only worker founded medical aid and our history is rich and the Scheme was intentionally formed to cater for the previously marginalised people in South Africa. Despite that many view medical aid as a grudge purchase, our innovations and programmes are geared towards cost saving for our members, attracting younger members, and in educating them on the importance of having medical aid cover and utilisation thereof. The Scheme has a varied range of healthcare programmes including a DBC Back and Neck Progamme, Mental Health Programme, Chronic Diseases Programme, HIV Programme, Oncology (Cancer) Programme, Primary Healthcare Programme and GoSmokeFree (Stop Smoking) Programme.

It is time that the current below 16% statistic of the number of South Africans who can afford medical aid, improves. All citizens deserve access to quality healthcare, for our country’s productivity standards to match that of the first world countries.

A stronger collaboration between local and national government is needed to ensure that there is adequate provision in government budgets for healthcare programmes and access to affordable private healthcare. SAMWUMED has always been a pioneer when it comes to that.

About SAMWUMED

The South African Municipal Workers Union National Medical Scheme (SAMWUMED) is a financially healthy, fully-funded, national-accredited and self-administered medical aid scheme which covers approximately 75 000 lives throughout South Africa. We operate within a closed sector namely, local government and associated agencies employees. 

SAMWUMED Communications & Marketing Manager

For more information visit:

Web: www.samwumed.org

Contact Person: Portia Ntsaluba

Email : portiant@samwumed.org