I wrote a review coplaining about Discovery recently. This is no suprise to me. We left it for another medical aid

Durban - The family of a Northern KwaZulu-­Natal woman who collapsed and died are seeking legal advice about pursuing a civil claim against a medical aid scheme for allegedly suspending payments for her dialysis treatment.

The 53-year-old died earlier this month after missing four dialysis sessions. She had been on dialysis for two years.

Discovery Health had apparently stopped paying her dialysis practitioner, who is based in Mtubatuba.

It had suggested going to another centre in Richards Bay for treatment, but the family apparently refused, saying it was too far away from their home.

The doctor, who did not want to be named, said she had regularly informed the woman about paying cash, because Discovery was the second medical aid scheme to suspend payments to her practice after conducting audits.

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She believed these clinical audits were not random, but part of racial profiling medical aids were accused of.

She said in April, Discovery had stopped making payments to members she was treating, and she was asked for these members’ confidential clinical files and blood samples.

After getting patients’ consent, she forwarded the information to Discovery.

“I sent three out of the six files I had. They said I had given them incomplete information and wanted me to come to their offices. I told them I don’t have the money to as I also hadn’t been paid since February by Medscheme medical aid. I asked that we reschedule,” she said.

She was running out of consumables, equipment and other items used to perform dialysis and had to borrow from other facilities. At some point she also treated patients pro bono.

“When the patients returned to me, Discovery told me it would move them to other facilities and it was going to claim back the money it had paid to me,” she said.

On June 3 she was still treating patients, including the woman that died. With her consumables running low, the next day she sent a text to her patients asking if they could pay in cash.

Dialysis sessions cost about R2 000 per session – up to R6 000 a week for some patients.

She said on June 5, the woman did not come for treatment and the next day the doctor had a conference call with the medical aid and the woman’s son, who wanted to know why the doctor could no longer treat his mother.

“(Discovery) told him to take his mother to a facility in Richards Bay, which is more than an hour’s drive for the family. They said I should phone back alone. On the Friday the woman stayed home and did not get treatment. On that day the family contacted the medical aid, telling them the woman was getting worse,” she said.

She, too, contacted Discovery, asking it to intervene. Discovery apparently asked her to resume treating patients, saying it would find another way of conducting its audit.

“I asked for this to be sent to me via email, but little did I know the patient had already died by then.”

With 10 days left for the public to make submissions on the Section 59 investigation into allegations of racial profiling against black doctors by medical aids schemes, Discovery Health and Medscheme have denied racial profiling.