Discovery staff appauling behaviour & inefficient claim process

It is rather unfortunate that today I had to deal with Discovery staff that is so disrespectful, such as their customer/ stakeholder relations person Emma. I really don’t know how she fulfils her job, as she has no customer etiquette, raising her voice to me over the telephone.

Discovery claim processes is such that if a dr charges you above medical aid rates, that discovery only pays the former and nothing in excess of the medical aid rates. The claim process takes about 3 work days. However as a customer we have two claim options, either to have your payouts at cost recovery which allows for payout in excess of the medical aid rate (i.e. you get paid whatever rate the dr charged you, provided you have savings available) or just the medical aid rate payout.

The catch with the former is that to claim the excess portion, should your dr charge above the medical aid rates, one has to phone/ email discovery to request for the excess portion. I just sat for 26 minutes on the phone discussing the payout of the portion in excess of the medical rate of which they state that I will have to wait an additional 3 work days for the excess to be paid out in addition to the initial 3 work days for the medical aid rate portion payout. This process makes no sense since I’m on the cost recovery option it should be a given that provided I have savings available that they payout the full cost claim.

One of the reasons most of us have medical aids are owing to the convenience that comes with it, that we would not need to pop-out money in the most inconvenient times.

Next steps: Discovery should seriously consider firstly training their staff to be more professional and client-centric and secondly create efficient processes that will allow for the smooth efficient and effective payout of claims.

Regards,