**4. Methods**

#### **4.1 Study design**

The study entailed a descriptive analysis of medical schemes claims data for the 2020 review period.

#### **4.2 Setting**

Medical schemes, which are also called health insurance companies operating in the private health sector in South Africa, are non-profit organisations governed by a board of trustees and must be registered with the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS). The CMS is a statutory body which is a Section 31 entity that regulates medical schemes in South Africa. There are two types of medical schemes, which are open and restricted medical schemes. Open membership schemes must accept anyone who wants to become a member [14]. Restricted membership schemes can restrict who may become a member, and they are typically employer or union based [14]. The schemes that were included in the analysis were those that submitted data as per circular 29 of 2020: Claims information for beneficiaries treated for COVID-19 of the CMS [15]. Theschemes covered in the analysis represented approximately

1,6 million lives, and this counted for 18% of all lives covered by medical schemes in 2019. The CMS annual reports twere used to source the data [16].
