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Protect your practice number

Healthcare practitioners should not hand over their practice number details over to employers, warns the HPCSA.

The Undesirable Business Practices Committee of the HPCSA recently became aware of a hospital group claiming for services rendered on behalf of the practitioners, using practice numbers belonging to healthcare professionals.

Practitioners were led to believe that they must apply for the practice number and then hand it over to the employer, resulting in the practitioner not knowing what claims were being made against their individual practice numbers as this information is held by management.

According to the Medical Schemes Act 131 of 1998 a practice number is a legal requirement to reimburse a claim to either a medical scheme member or service provider. A medical scheme may only reimburse a member or a provider of relevant healthcare services for services rendered against a valid practice number.

“We are appealing to all healthcare practitioners to refrain from handing over practice number details to their employers and are urging practitioners employed in similar institutions to refrain from such practice,” says Vanessa Moodley, chairperson of the Undesirable Business Committee. The HPCSA has also alerted the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) of this practice.

Last Updated on 13 November 2014 by HPCSA Corporate Affairs