Healthcare Merger Approved

December 2 - A proposal to merge two of South Africa's healthcare schemes has received approval.

In September it was announced that Medicover and Liberty Medical Scheme were seeking to merge their operations.

Members of both schemes were asked to vote on the merger proposal, and voting took place over the past few months.

The two schemes announced this week that the merger had been approved and that, if all goes according to plan, operations would unite on January 1st, 2010.

The plan is still waiting for the approval of the Registrar of Medical Schemes, although problems are not foreseen to gain their permission.

The newly merged group will be known as Liberty Medical Scheme and, united, will be the fourth largest open healthcare scheme in South Africa.

The combined customer base of the groups will incorporate 200,000 lives.

Another popular health group, Oxygen Medical Scheme, informed its members that it was in intense merger talks with another, as of yet unnamed scheme.

Oxygen said that it would only name the potential partner once an agreement has been reached.

"The scheme with which we would partner is in a strong financial position with solid, healthy reserves, and an amalgamation would therefore be of advantage to Oxygen and its members," read a statement by the group.

Medihelp, another health scheme, also issued a statement saying that there was no truth in the rumours that the group intended merging with Liberty Medical Scheme when it comes into being at the beginning of next year.