• Our team has been involved in rendering legal advisory services in the industry for more than 23 (twenty-three) years. This ranges from advisory services to various regulators, such as the Council for Medical Schemes, the Health Professions Council of South Africa (“HPCSA”) and the Competition Commission, to various closed and open medical schemes such as GEMS, POLMED, SABMAS, SAMWUMED, Bonitas, Liberty Medical Scheme, Medicover Medical Scheme, Sizwe Medical Fund, Hosmed Medical Scheme as well as other industry role players such as Agility Health (Pty) Ltd; Discovery Health (Pty) Ltd.

• Tebogo has advised the HPCSA and the Council for Medical Schemes on the 2007 amendments to the Health Professions Act of 1974 as well as the Medical Schemes Amendment Bill of 2007.

• Tebogo has advised the HPCSA during the revision of its ethical rules between 2004 and 2006 as well as on the constitutionality of section 41A of the HP Act resulting in the legislative amendment thereof.

• Tebogo led the HPCSA’s project (a Multi-Disciplinary Task Team) aimed at regulating issues of ethical business practice to prevent perverse incentives in the provision of health care in the Republic. The result of the said project was A Policy on Undesirable Business Practice, a policy that helped to guide the health care industry (both providers and funders).

• Tebogo, Bonang and Ally reviewed the HPCSA’s ethical rules governing the conduct of healthcare practitioners following the report of the Competition Commission’s Health Market Inquiry that found the rules to be rigid and outdated. They further facilitated strategic workshops for 12 Professional Boards and Council.

• Tebogo conducted the first successful statutory investigation in terms of section 41A of the Health Professions Act of 1974 (“the HP Act”) into perverse incentives in the pathology and radiology industries. Those investigations led to the first successful prosecution of the radiology firm Illes and Partners as well as the prosecution of the two large pathology firms, Ampath and Lancet, resulting in a reported judgment by the SCA on this type of ethical transgression, with the neutral citation Preddy v Health Professions Council of SA (54/2007) [2008] ZASCA 25 (31 March 2008). The investigation into the latter pathology firms’ corporate structure also lead to the successful unbundling of Netcare and Life’s interests in the said pathology firms and large penalties were also imposed on the pathology firms.

• Tebogo acts as the leader of the pro forma complainant’s team that is acting on behalf of the HPCSA which is prosecuting the first case of ethical transgressions involving the use of biological and chemical warfare against Dr Wouter Basson. In this prosecution, the pro forma complainant’s team is assisted by a leading American expert in bioethics.

• Tebogo has been advising the Health Professions Council of South Africa (“HPCSA”) on the breaches to the ethical rules of conduct by professionals across various disciplines in the medical fields.

• We advised the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital (“NMCH”), a specialist paediatric facility initiated by the vision of President Nelson Mandela to provide state-of-the-art
healthcare to the children of Southern Africa, regardless of their socio-economic status. Tebogo was the lead attorney advising the NMCH on a project which will see the NMCH outsource the overall management of the hospital to a private partner in order to ensure its sustainability moving into the future. Tebogo and Luise were responsible for amongst others advising the NMCH on the possible structures which can be considered by the NMCH for purposes of contracting with a private partner to manage the NMCH for a period of 5 years, and the practical implementation of the most suitable structure. In broad terms, the project cycle entailed selection and appointment of the preferred bidder, negotiations with the preferred bidder; conceptualising, formulating and finalising the Hospital Management Agreement and Structure; and implementation thereof.

• We acted on behalf of both Sizwe Medical Fund and Hosmed Medical Scheme in their amalgamation transaction. Our advice related to conducting the necessary due diligence investigations on both Schemes. We further assisted with the regulatory processes pertaining to the amalgamation notification requirements before the Registrar of Medical Schemes, including addressing responses to complaints by members. We assisted both Schemes with litigation which ensued relating to the amalgamation. These included defending a curatorship application against Sizwe Medical Fund, an Appeal before the Council for Medical Schemes in terms of section 63(8) of the MSA on the Registrar’s decision to refuse the approval of the amalgamation, and later a review application of the decision by the South African Local Government Bargaining Council (“SALGBC”) refusing to grant the Schemes an accreditation. We were successful in all litigious processes, culminating in the consummation of the amalgamation transaction.