Itekanele health scheme opens Phikwe branch

MQONDISI DUBE
Correspondent | Friday April 11, 2008 00:00

A relatively new player in the industry, Itekanele has already set-up shop in Gaborone and Francistown and plan more branches countrywide.

Selebi-Phikwe mayor, Amogelang Mojuta, officially opened the Selebi-Phikwe branch on Friday evening.

Itekanele managing director, Solly Reikeletseng said the company was formed following the realisation that the cost of medical services is high and a large number of people have no access to affordable health schemes.

He said Itekanele conducted a survey which showed that only 90,000 people in Botswana are covered by medical aid. 'We asked ourselves why at least 1.6 million people were not covered. We discovered that there was no affordable medical aid for the ordinary person,' Reikeletseng said.

He added that from their survey, it was discovered that those on medical aid are government employees, workers of established companies or those whose organisations meet part of the cost of medical aid.

Out of the survey, Reikeletseng said it was evident that some of the people, who had medical aid, did not have their dependants covered.

'We then grouped these individuals and saw why they were not covered; medical aid was expensive,' Reikeletseng asserted.

He said Itekanele has built a network of highly qualified medical practitioners who provide services to their clients. He said the medical aid provider has a network of 60 doctors throughout the country and the number is growing.

He said Itekanele screens doctors to ascertain if they are well established and have a reputation to ensure that their clients receive quality service.

'If I give you a rundown of the doctors we work with, you will see that we deal with highly qualified personnel,' Reikeletseng said.

He said when they started operations three years back, people were skeptical and wondered if they would not swindle clients. He revealed that such notions have been dispelled as Itekanele has managed to cover over 22,000 people in its short time in operation.

He said they will roll out their operations to all major towns and villages across the country.

'We felt that we have to open a branch in every village in the country. We will be opening more branches countrywide by June this year and we are saying: be part of the experience,' Reikeletseng said.

Sales and services manager, Cyrus Mogashoa said Itekanele provides a variety of health products to suit individual needs. He said they have  affordable health cover with low premiums starting from P89 per month.

He said Itekanele covers every person, whether they are employed or not and has adopted a preventative rather than a curative approach to health care. 'Itekanele believes that if attention is given to out of hospital patient care by wellness programmes largely through lifestyle modification and primary preventive care will drive health care costs down,' Mogashoa said.

Selebi-Phikwe mayor, Mojuta said the opening of the Itekanele branch is a welcome move considering that the town has a high HIV/AIDS prevalence rate.

He hailed Itekanele's strategy focusing on a preventative rather than a curative approach to health cover.

'The strategy of Itekanele where focus is on preventive rather than cure is a winning strategy and the good thing about it is the scheme is affordable,' Mojuta said.

He noted that President Ian Khama has promised development in areas such as health. Mojuta urged Itekanele to work with its members to ensure survival of the scheme.

'We need to be jealous as Batswana and protect such good initiatives and ensure that they work,' Mojuta said.