EX-GRATIA APPLICATION -NO RESPONSE

Dear Discovery Ex-gratia

I submitted an Ex-gratia application 28 days ago on behalf of my Mother of 82 years of age, who has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer that has metastasized to her liver.

Despite being initially told that the review process should take no longer than a week, it has now turned into almost a month!

There seems to be no end in sight at the moment in getting an answer from anybody at Discovery Oncology and or the Ex-gratia department as they cannot be contacted directly, and all that happens is that a consultant sends them an email which seems to fall on deaf ears as they never seem to respond to that either.

Today I was told by the Oncology consultant that their email to Ex-gratia is the only escalation that is possible and that one cannot even talk to a case manager to get answers.

He further went on to say that from his personal experience, that when Discovery approves an "Innovation Benefit" as they have done for my Mothers type of cancer's medication that the Ex-gratia team has never approved any such application by the member for funding because its unfair to the rest of the schemes members.

Discovery's Ex-gratia silent behavior so far and the above statement, to one of its members , is totally inhumane behavior! especially towards an 82 year old woman who despite the trauma that she is currently undergoing in having to deal with her cancer and further not being unable to afford the treatment that has been approved by Discovery, is now being made to wait for a life saving answer that may never come.

I cant believe Discovery Health's treatment of its members, despite posting huge profits and hosting lavish cross border events in neighboring Botswana for its brokers and staff, which I personally witnessed in or around 2010 at the Grand Palm hotel in Gaborone.

Furthermore the Ex-gratia application states that the boards decision regarding the outcome of a members application is final, cannot be appealed and that no reason need be given for there decision. This sounds like communism !!!

Discovery Health you should be ashamed of the way you treat your faithful members and perhaps its time that the Carte Blanch team should start asking you some questions, so that simple South Africans can start to understand how you conduct business.

Rethink the Discovery slogan "WE'LL BE HERE FOR YOU" to something more fitting ?