PSMAS to introduce POS electronic card system for its members

Nigel Gambanga Avatar

There usually isn’t a lot you can say about Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) that doesn’t have a nasty message behind it. Just try googling PSMAS and you’ll be met with story upon story of bad news and no mention of any new products and service.

Taking the lead, of course, are the countless stories around its overpaid executives and Cuthbert Dube, our nation’s poster child of corporate greed. Then there are reports of lawsuits against the Society, how the Society is drowning in serious debt, how its facing collapse and even more concerning, how its members are angry that they now have to fork out cash to get treatment.Sure, it could be just bad press, but there is something seriously wrong at PSMAS.

However, not all things about PSMAS are bad. There are other things happening at the society, good things actually, with the involvement of tech at the centre of them. Take for instance their new POS System and Membership Card set for launch and rollout at the end of June 2015.

The new system lets members use their cards for service access by swiping them at the Point of Sale terminals which every medical centre accepting PSMAS will be taking up. The card allows members to check the balance of service available, access benefits and its also supposed to be a more secure way of determining members with active accounts, something that will reduce rejected claims.

This doesn’t look like something that PSMAS should be making a huge deal about though. Sure it’s great for whoever will be handling IS Audit for the society, but e-cards with member status information are something that shouldn’t be made a fuss over, expect perhaps, by smaller centres like schools and colleges trying to find out who’s paid fees or who gets access to library resources. It’s great to have but doesn’t seem like PSMAS’ biggest problem.

As someone who is not a member of PSMAS I guess I shouldn’t be quick to dismiss this new card. Perhaps it is solving a huge pain point for it’s members, but at first glance this looks like an underwhelming service. With all those stories on the challenges that PSMAS is facing, they can surely do a lot more to write a new story that helps us forget about its corrupt past.

One response

  1. TSA – The Serial Analyst

    You are right when you say “As someone who is not a member of PSMAS I guess I shouldn’t be quick to dismiss this new card.” In order to have an appreciation of this development, you need to be well rounded in what happens in the entire health industry. Did you know that service providers are going to benefit BIG TIME from this? Turnaround time of claims processing is going to go down…shortfalls will be eliminated, accuracy enhanced, and conflicts between service providers and PSMAS (health funders) will be a thing of the past thereby strengthening mutually beneficial business relationships. No other medical aid has done this in Zim and thats why its a milestone for PSMAS!

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