Remedi – 45 years young

Remedi (at the inception date known as the Rembrandt Group Medical Aid Scheme) was registered on 18 September 1972 according to the Certificate of Registration issued by the Council for Medical Schemes.

Some interesting facts of 1972

• The music group ABBA was formed.
• Hewlett Packard introduced the world’s first scientific pocket calculator, the HP-35.
• Volkswagen Beetle sales exceeded those of the Ford Model T when the 15 007 034th Volkswagen Beetle was produced.
• Five entrepreneurs in Germany had a vision for the business potential of technology and started SAP.
• Aldo Shoes was founded as a footwear concession within a chain of popular fashion boutiques.
• The Adidas trefoil logo was launched.
• Bushnell incorporated Atari in June 1972 and Pong became the first commercially successful video game.
• The overseas tobacco interests of Rembrandt were consolidated as Rothmans International, which was listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Remedi’s history

Luckily, I got hold of Mike Botha, former Head of Human Resources at Remgro Ltd, who is now on pension, to take me back in history for a while. Prior to 1972, Rembrandt Group (now Remgro Ltd) employees were members of Sanmed, a medical scheme managed by Sanlam. The Rembrandt Group then decided to start an in-house medical scheme, named the Rembrandt Group Medical Aid Scheme in 1972. Only full affiliates of the Rembrandt Group could join and as a result, Rupert International, Distillers Corporation (now Distell), Rembrandt Tobacco Manufacturers and the two marketing divisions, Cigarette Importers and Distributors (CID) and Tobacco Exporters and Manufacturers (TEM) became members of the Scheme. At that stage the Scheme had around 3 000 members. The tobacco side of the Group had some name changes over the years, CID and TEM became Transatlantic Tobacco and Intercontinental Tobacco, that later merged to form Rothmans International in the 90s. Rembrandt sold its entire tobacco business to British American Tobacco in 1999.

In 1983, Dr Edwin Hertzog, Mediclinic’s current chairperson, was commissioned by the then Rembrandt Group to undertake a feasibility study on private hospitals, leading to the foundation of Mediclinic. Between 1984 and 1985, Mediclinic Group was established through the purchasing of several medical facilities in Cape Town and Johannesburg. These included Mediclinic Sandton, Mediclinic Morningside and Leewendal (which later became Mediclinic Cape Town). The Mediclinic Group grew through the years and currently operates 52 hospitals and 2 day clinics with around 16 832 employees.

Rembrandt Medical Aid Scheme’s name changed to Remedi Medical Aid Scheme following the foundation of Mediclinic around 1984 as employees of Mediclinic were also allowed to join the Scheme. Membership grew from around 3 000 members in 1972 to 21 092 in 2017. Most of the growth was because of Mediclinic. Today, 63% of the total membership is made up of Mediclinic employees.

From the beginning, Remedi has outsourced the administration part of the Scheme to accredited administrators that have skills and expertise in the field. Remedi has only had three administrators, namely Medscheme until the late 90s, Metropolitan, and since 2010 Discovery Health.

Remedi has always been and continues to be managed by employees of the participating employer groups. These employees, known as Scheme Trustees, are either appointed by the employer groups or elected by the members of the Scheme. This is a voluntary position and the Trustees are not remunerated. They manage the Scheme on top of their day jobs at the employer groups. A big thank you to all the Trustees who have been involved over the years and have built up the Scheme to what it is today.

From 1972, Remedi grew to 21 092 main members and a total membership of 47 024 people. Membership is open to the Remgro Group, affiliates and former affiliates of the Group. Participating employer groups include, Remgro, WWF and Richemont Luxury Goods (1.8%), Mediclinic (63.1%), the Distell Group (16.1%), British American Tobacco (5.3%), Tracker (5.6%), the Trans Hex Group (0.1%) and pensioners (8.0%).

Congratulations and thank you to everyone that has made Remedi a remarkable success.

Jaco Janse van Vuuren
Principal Officer