********* behaviour by insurance provider

I was paying for Dis-chem health insurance, including the illness buy-up option for 1 year. Then in July 2023, I had an emergency appendectomy. This is one of the 13 illness covered by the buy-up option. Anyone fami**** with this illness will know that it is extremely painful and debilitating, and can be life-threatening if the appendix bursts. My doctor referred me to the Kingsbury hospital, but warned me that I needed authorisation from Dis-Chem before proceeding. I called Dis-Chem insurance and after going through all the prompts, (whilst in agony), and they asked me for the ICD10 code - I had no idea what that was. They assured me that the hospital would obtain authorisation and I had nothing to worry about. I arrived at Kingsbury, which is one of the network hospitals with Dis-Chem, and was admitted straight away, although the receptionist looked very confused about how to deal with my insurance. After some more tests, the hospital informed me that I would need surgery that evening. The doctors kept asking me if I was a private - in other words, would I pay the bill in my private capacity. I informed them that I had health insurance with Dis-Chem, but if worst came to worst, I would cover it, just because I was in so much pain, and was scared for my life at this stage, that I couldn't imagine not going ahead with the surgery. After some painkillers, while waiting for the surgery, I called Dis-Chem again to make sure that I had the authorisation. It was after hours, so I only got through to Netcare, and they told me that if I was in hospital already, then I would've gotten authorisation. This reassured me. Long-story short, 3 months later, and I'm still fighting with Dis-Chem to cover the R50,000 hospital bill, as they told me that authorisation was not obtained. Kingsbury hospital called Dis-Chem multiple times but was unable to get through, and I have shared my call logs and the hospital call logs with Dis-Chem. At the end of the day, it seems like Dis-Chem is looking for any reason to not pay for the bill. Additionally, while the hospital is a network provider, the hospital staff seem to have no training or clear procedure to follow on how to obtain authorisation from the Dis-Chem. This makes it 10X more stressful when going to the hospital for an emergency, and then have to stress the whole time whether the bill would be covered by your insurance provider. Overall, feels like hugely ********* conduct by Dis-Chem, and I wouldn't recommend this health insurance provider to anybody.