Medical aid fund dragged to court

THE Namibian Competition Commission has dragged the Namibian Medical Aid Funds (Namaf) and some members to court over collusive behaviour.

This was confirmed by the Namibian Competition Commission (NaCC)’s chief executive officer, Mihe Gaomab II, on Friday.

During the commission’s last media briefing of the year, Gaomab said the commission had concluded an investigation into anti-competitive practices in the healthcare sector in Namibia.

“The commission found that there was a clear infringement of section 23 of the Competition Act in that Namaf and its member medical aid funds had conspired to fix prices in respect of benchmark tariffs,” he said.

Gaomab said the hearing date of NaCC’s case against Namaf is Thursday, 26 November in the High Court of Namibia in Windhoek.

“This was a matter that was ripe to proceed for determination before the High Court, to have appropriate remedies determined and to bring this conduct to an end,” Gaomab further said.

He, however, said before the commission could bring its case, Namaf and the funds brought an application to contest the jurisdiction of the commission, which Gaomab said the commission has opposed.

NaCC’s corporate secretary Nangosora Tjipitua said section 23 of the Competition Act prohibits collusive behaviour or cartels among firms.

“Our investigation found that Namaf and several other medical aid funds were involved in collusive behaviour through price fixing,” said Tjipitua, adding that this is the conduct that the commission will challenge in the High Court.

According to her, Namaf challenges the NaCC by reasoning that the commission does not have the jurisdiction to investigate Namaf.

Tjipitua refused to go into further details, saying that the outcome of the hearing would shed more light on the issue.

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