Cape Town — Private hospitals look set to press ahead with their fee increases for this year, despite Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang's appeal for them to stick to last year's rates.

She made her call after several medical schemes complained to the Council for Medical Schemes that they had been bullied into accepting unaffordable rate increases for this year, jeopardising their viability.

The minister also said she would call an urgent meeting with the private hospital groups to discuss their fees, which she has threatened to regulate.

SA's private hospital market is dominated by three companies -- Netcare, Life Healthcare and Medi-Clinic, which combined own three-quarters of SA's 28,426 private hospital beds.

Yesterday, Medi-Clinic said it would be impractical and costly to revert to last year's rates. Following the Competition Commission's ruling in 2002 banning bloc negotiations within the health care sector, Medi-Clinic had more than 120 fee structures for its clients, said the company's manager for funder relations, Roly Buys. "From an administrative point of view, it's very difficult to hold back (the increases) -- each scheme has its own set of tariffs."

Buys said negotiations with medical schemes had begun in September, and he questioned the timing of their complaints to the Council for Medical Schemes.

According to the Hospital Association of SA (Hasa), which represents private hospitals, a meeting with TshabalalaMsimang has been scheduled for next week.

After the minister's private health care sector indaba last year, Hasa set up a subcommittee representing hospital CEs to address the issues . Hasa requested a meeting with the minister at the beginning of last month, but she was unavailable , so a date was set for January 14, said Hasa CEO Kurt Worrall-Clare.

He said the committee had compiled extensive documentation on private hospitals, which it planned to present to her . "We are confident that once we have had an opportunity to discuss the matter with the minister we will find a resolution," he said.

"Once we have had insight into the nature of the accusations made against private hospitals and the individual opinions of stakeholders making these statements, together with any supporting documentation, the sector will respond with more detail to specific concerns raised."

Worrall-Clare said Hasa had also commissioned in-depth research into the national health price reference list, a list of recommended tariffs published by the health department.

Private hospital groups are also under pressure from the Council for Medical Schemes, which has threatened to take them to court for allegedly breaching the Medicines Act with their pricing system for anaesthetic gases. It has also threatened to haul them before the Competition Commission for alleged anticompetitive behaviour.