NO SERVICE AND NO COMPASSION FOR THE ELDERLY !

Medical aids are often the subject of criticism, but at least other medical aids take action or at the very least respond when an issue arises. Bonitas on the other hand has quite the opposite approach. Warning to the wise - steer clear of ever joining Bonitas.

In 2021, Bonitas sent out correspondence to its members that all members whom are on an income based option plan should submit their proof of income in order to undergo an income verification. One such member is my grandmother, Phoebe Ingram, who is 84 years old.

In December 2021, she phoned me and mentioned that she had received an urgent notice requiring her to do an income verification. Being 84 years old, she was not sure what this entailed and what it was for. However, the call was unfortunately also rather difficult, as she had been diagnosed with Covid and was in the midst of battling the virus. `she was not doing or feeling well at all, but nonetheless, this income verification issue bothered her and she was afraid that she had missed some deadline or done something wrong. Indeed, she did forget and she had missed the deadline for the necessary documents to be signed. Due to the documents never having been sent to Bonitas, my grandmother was automatically escalated to a significantly higher plan meaning that on 3 January an amount of R2982 instead of the usual R1274 was deducted from her account. She cannot afford to pay R2982 every month and as such I decided to try and sort out the issue before the next deduction in February. Long story short, to this very day, numerous reference numbers and phone calls to Bonitas later, nothing has been done to rectify the matter and yet again, the R2982 was deducted from my grandmother's account today. This after a month of the following correspondence:

On 3 January, I phoned Bonitas explaining the situation and the fact that my grandmother had contracted Covid 19 and that she had been isolating. Being 84 and very sick due to Covid, she was unable to go to the SASSA office to obtain her income certificate as required by Bonitas. I was assured by Bonitas (Mvulani) that I should just explain the situation on an email with a bank statement attached and that the matter would then be rectified and that my grandmother would be put back on the plan that she had been on prior to the escalation. By the 17th of December, I had heard nothing from Bonitas and phoned again. This time, I was told by Mvulani that the email was not sufficient and that I would also need to send the Covid test result, which I then did. On the 21st I followed up via email, with no response. On the 24th I phoned Bonitas again and spoke to Fundiswah, who said that she could not see the completed income declaration form on their system, a document which I had already sent on the 3rd. She also informed me that Mvulani was in fact wrong and that I would also need an affidavit by my grandmother stating that she only receives her SASSA pension. I immediately took my grandmother to the nearest police station in order to get the (newly) required affidavit and sent it to Bonitas on the same day. She assured me that I would receive feedback by the 26th. Needless to say, that never happened. After a followup email on the 27th, I phoned on the 28th and spoke to yet another representative, who said the matter had been escalated to a manager. Lo and behold, after numerous new requirements that could have been dealt with should Bonitas' employees understand what is actually required from the start, today yet another payment of R2982 was deducted from her account. An amount of money she simply cannot afford. I phoned Bonitas today in order to establish how this happened yet again, after a month of them doing absolutely nothing, and I was told that it was in fact my/ my grandmother's fault that this had happened, as she had not submitted the documents by the deadline in 2021... This despite Bonitas having had a month to sort this out. This after I never received any feedback, but constantly having needed to follow up from my side. This, being the manner in which Bonitas treats a 84 year old lady whom was unable to do what was necessary due to Covid.

Bonitas, I will be submitting a formal complaint tomorrow with the Council for medical schemes.