For practices · 12-month forecast
The economy is barely growing, borrowing costs more, and your patients' medical aid goes up again in January. Put in your own numbers and see what four everyday leaks will cost you, what our package wins back, and the month it pays for itself. Every figure on this page is your number, published data, or an assumption we name.
The economy, in six numbers
GDP shrank in the second quarter of 2026, after six quarters of growth. Trade fell 1.9%.
Stats SA, 8 Sep 2026The Reserve Bank's growth forecast for 2026, then 2027. Cut again in September.
SARB MPC, 23 Sep 2026Prime, after the second rate rise this year (repo 7.25%). Money that waits now costs more.
SARB MPC, 23 Sep 2026Inflation in August 2026. The Reserve Bank expects 4.0% for 2027.
Stats SA, Sep 2026; SARBDiscovery Health Medical Scheme's average contribution rise from January 2027, about twice inflation.
Discovery, Sep 2026; subject to CMS approvalGrowth in medical scheme lives in 2024, to 9.17 million. Open schemes shrank 1.31%.
Council for Medical Schemes, 2024 reportWhat that means for a practice: the pool of insured patients is hardly growing, and those patients pay more for their cover every year. In the next 12 months, more income is unlikely to come from more patients. It comes from the patients you already have, and from keeping money you have already earned.
Your forecast
We filled in an example practice so you can see how it works. Change every number to yours. Nothing you type leaves this page.
| Over 12 months | Without us | With us | Difference |
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This is a forecast from your numbers, published data and three assumptions we name. It is not a promise. The free 50-file test measures your real numbers before you decide anything.
The economics behind it
Rent, salaries and equipment cost the same whether a chair is full or empty. So a visit you win back adds its fee, less only the materials it uses, to your profit. Economists call that the contribution margin.
R900 fee − 10% materials = R810 to profit
Noam, Managing Media and Digital Organizations, §11.2.1.3, p.460A rand that arrives late is worth less. You either borrow to cover the gap at prime, or lose what it would have earned. This is the time value of money.
R10,000 × 10.75% × 45/365 = R133
Corelli, Analytical Corporate Finance, discounting, pp.44 to 46In a randomised trial at a dental practice, a plain reminder postcard more than doubled the share of overdue patients who booked a check-up within a month: 19.3% against 8.9%. After 100 days, 8.1 more in every 100 had actually come in.
Altmann and Traxler, European Economic Review 72 (2014), pp.19 to 38Any spend is judged two ways: how many months until it has paid for itself, and what its future rands are worth today, discounted at the rate you would pay to borrow. We show both, at prime.
Corelli, Analytical Corporate Finance, ch. 4: NPV p.122, payback p.126With prices rising about 4% a year, every leak priced in rands grows with your fees. What you pay us is fixed the day you sign. That is why a once-off fix gets cheaper, in real terms, the longer you would have kept leaking.
Inflation forecast: SARB MPC statement, 23 Sep 2026Sources
