Circular 37 of 2024: Financial Annual Statutory Returns for 2023 delays
The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) would like to communicate delays in finalising the Word document for the 2023 Financial Annual Statutory Return.
Delays in the availability of the Word document
In Circular 30 of 2024, it was communicated that the Word document (print facility) will only be available at a later stage. We have experienced a further delay in finalising it, which will take longer than anticipated. As a result, the deadline for submission of 23 August 2024 is no longer applicable, and a new deadline will be communicated once the Word document is available. The new deadline would allow for sufficient time for auditors to audit and review the annual statutory return. CMS will be providing regular feedback on the progress made on the development of the word document through mass emails to the users of the statutory returns.
Bugs and Signiflow rerouting requests on the annual return system
CMS is aware of the following bugs on the annual return system:
| Part name | Description |
| Part 1 | Part 1 issues have been experienced whereby trustee names are not pulling through correctly from the CMS master database. |
| Part 1.4 | There is an issue on this part where text is being duplicated in many of the answers to the questions. This also affects part 4.15 where the number that was entered in question 6(e) is now replaced with text and now results in the reason box popping with the validation rule. |
| Pary 2.3 | The total males figure is not showing. |
| Part 4.23 validation rule | There is an error on the validation rule: 4.23.10.1 Consolidated total Net (income)/expense = 4.13.4 Consolidated total current year Net (income)/expense.
|
| Part 5 | Reinsurance outstanding claims provision previous year Part 5: line 5.2.3.2.2 is not pulling from the correct lines in Part 4.9. |
| Part 6.2.1 | The following validation rule is an old one and will be removed:
6.2.1.8.3 YTD Fee paid to accredited administrator (and co-administrator) in respect of other administration services must agree with (4.16.2.2.11 Total fee paid to the administrator (and co-administrator) in respect of accredited administration services (current year column) ) * -1 |
| Signiflow | Numerous requests for Signiflow reroutes have been received. |
Please note that these bugs and rerouting requests will only be addressed by IT after the Word document is available.
We request your patience while we prepare the Word document.
Annual General Meetings (AGMs)
As was previously communicated in Circular 20 of 2024, medical schemes may submit the unsigned annual financial statements (AFS) as part of the AGM notice packs to members.
Once the AFS are signed by the scheme and its auditors, medical schemes may email the said copies of the AFS to members or issue notifications that the AFS have been published on the various schemes’ websites.
The audited set of AFS will, therefore, only be able to serve for approval at next year’s AGM.
Medical schemes are encouraged to openly communicate with members the reason for the delay in this year’s submission of AFS and AR information. They may refer to the relevant circulars published by the CMS as they relate to updates on the Annual Statutory Return Systems.
Annual Industry Report of financial information and trends
The CMS publishes the CMS Industry Report annually in October, coinciding with the tabling of the CMS Annual Report to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health. However, due to IT-related issues that have resulted in delayed online submissions from schemes, the CMS will not be publishing an Industry Report alongside the Annual Report in 2024. Instead, the CMS will inform the industry of revised timelines and launch dates in due course.
Quarterly returns
Due to ICT capacity constraints, CMS needs to start with the development of the 2024 annual statutory return immediately after the final submission occurs in order to ensure that the annual return system is available at a more appropriate time next year.
The delay in the annual report submission also results in the Quarterly return submissions no longer being practical from a timing perspective. CMS will communicate the way forward in this regard in due course.
Your co-operation will be highly appreciated.
Download the full Circular here