End of the road for Health Squared?
The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has granted Health Squared Medical Scheme leave to apply for voluntary liquidation on 27 September 2022, but has yet to decide on the industry regulator’s urgent application to place the scheme under curatorship.
A Business Day report says in an order handed down on Friday, Judge Allyson Crutchfield instructed Health Squared to inform its members of its application to wind up the scheme via email, newspaper adverts and a notice on its website.
She also made a last-minute resolution by the board of trustees undertaking to extend cover to gravely ill members until 30 September an order of the court.
It stipulated that this protection could not be scrapped by a curator, should one be appointed.
Health Squared’s application for leave to apply for voluntary liquidation was opposed by the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS), which wants to place the scheme under curatorship instead.
Crutchfield has yet to indicate whether she will decide on the CMS’ curatorship application based on heads of argument submitted at the weekend, or hear oral argument.
In court papers the CMS sought the appointment of a curator to facilitate and negotiate the transfer of Health Squared members to other medical schemes, and management of the scheme alongside any liquidator appointed by the court.
It argued in its founding affidavit that a curator was necessary to investigate the circumstances that led to the demise of the scheme, whose solvency ratio plunged from 17.32% at the end of 2020 to 2.15% at the end of July 2022.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
