Digital tracking systems used during the pandemic will drive the National Health Insurance – which “still needs a lot of work, and will require working with the private sector”, according to the Health Department’s Director-General Sandile Buthelezi.
Speaking at the recent Board of Healthcare Funders conference in Cape Town, Buthelezi said the digital strategy would enable the government to access all patient records and track treatment outcomes. It would be linked to biometric identity systems at home affairs and monitor 55 000 healthcare facilities.
“The Covid vaccine system was a test of how we can use the private system and how it responded to the insured or uninsured. We can code where you came into the system and at what cost,” he told the conference. ….more