ITIC MEA 2024 | Medical assistance in Africa
Bernadette Breton from AIMS and Jane Munyua from AMREF Flying Doctors consider the major obstacles to providing quality medical assistance to travellers in Africa
The ITIJ team have been reporting live from ITIC MEA in Cairo this week (April 2024) sharing the discussions that took place at the conference. Read all the reports here.
Jane Munyua, Medical Assistance Manager, AMREF Flying Doctors, began by offering an overview of the health landscape in Africa, noting the unequal distribution of healthcare facilities across the continent, where quality care is often only found in major towns and cities, and the disparity between privately owned and government hospitals. “As Africa’s economy grows and it becomes a more popular destination for foreigners, there is a need for medical assistance companies to address certain challenges,” Munyua told the audience.
The main challenges she listed were:
- Identifying reliable partnerships
- Mitigating fraudulent activities
- Ensuring access to value-based healthcare
- Inadequate intelligence on the assistance environment
- Addressing cultural and language diversity.
Munyua’s presentation focused on the solutions to each of the above challenges, highlighting:
- The importance of building networks through local partnerships
- Ensuring careful scrutiny and questioning of costs and charges that are not customary for the area or facility
- Identifying and working with healthcare facilities that can guarantee quality at a reasonable cost
- Recognising the importance of local knowledge and intelligence
- Understanding the patriarchal nature of many east African countries, where decisions relating to health and treatment are often made by the male(s) in the home and community.
“In conclusion,” said Munyua, “the industry needs to focus on building trustworthy networks, and using technology to tackle the challenges of medical assistance in Africa head on.”
Bernadette Breton, CEO, Alliance International Medical Services (AIMS), began by reinforcing the point that access to healthcare for expats and tourists in south and west Africa varies considerably, and depends on the country. “South Africa,” she said “maintains first world medical standards yet is positioned within what is documented as a third-world continent.” Even with South Africa, though, there is variation in the availability of beds as a result of a recent legislative ruling regarding non-South Africans making use of public beds encourages non-residents to use private facilities.
Looking at some of the main challenges that international medical assistance companies must overcome working on behalf of clients in south and west Africa, Breton focused primarily on the issue of medical provider fraud. “Unfortunately,” she warned, “this is and can be a real thing which cannot be overlooked. Provider fraud can and does undermine the delivery of quality care to patients.” Particular issues to be aware of include inaccurate billing, upcoding, phantom billing, and ‘under-the-table’ gratuities. To combat these issues, there are tools and skills that staff can employ. Breton urged the audience to:
- Familiarise themselves with prevailing market standards for reasonable and customary charges
- Develop a comprehensive understanding of their service providers
- Enforce through monitoring and auditing
- Stand firm on ethics and compliance.
It is also important, said Breton, to recognise the role of cultural awareness in the administration of healthcare. These can vary significantly across Africa, so assistance companies should be aware of the potential for providers to want to integrate alternative and conventional medical approaches – advocacy to this combination of approaches can enhance healthcare access and improve outcomes.
Breton concluded her presentation with case studies that highlighted the patchy availability of high quality care (and medical equipment) in Africa, and underlined the need for great local relationships, a deep understanding of local healthcare systems, and a reliable medical network across Africa.
The problem of medical provider and customer fraud was a major point of discussion after both presentations in this session; and while there is no one solution that will prevent or stop the perpetrators at large, there are tools that medical assistance companies can employ to identify fraudulent activities. Taking note of details is vital, and examining claims for inconsistencies and inaccuracies is key.