via Min took $100,000 from crippled PSMAS – NewZimbabwe 21/10/2015
HEALTH and Child Care Minister David Parirenyatwa has insisted that a $100,000 “urgent payment” to his firm by the struggling State health insurer PSMAS was above board.
Parirenyatwa is a medical doctor and the payment was authorised by health ministry principal director Dr Gibson Mhlanga when he was appointed interim PSMAS general manager.
The payment was made in May 2014 to Parirenyatwa’s private company CHEST.
According The Herald, Parirenyatwa was only owed $23,000 in claims for patients seen at his private surgery.
The minister however said there was nothing irregular about the $77,000 overpayment.
“It’s all above board. It is called capitation where a service provider can request an insurer to pay him more than what he is owed,” he said.
“This money would then be recovered through future claims to the insurer by the service provider. It is a common norm in the medical industry.”
The transaction was made at time other private doctors around the country warned they could be forced to close surgeries as PSMAS was failing to pay for services.
The health insurer owed service providers more than $140 million at the time.
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