1 reviews | Active since Nov 2022
*****ing money from pensioners
If you are looking for medical aid, choose literally any company other than this one!
My mother paid R2240.30 in cash for a doctor’s appointment in February. Instead of refunding this money to her when she tried to claim it, Discovery paid it to their 'external debt department' claiming that my mother owed them money.
In the week of 11 - 14 July, I spoke to at least five different people on her behalf on the phone and no one could tell us where the so-called “debt” had originated, except that it stemmed from when my father "left the medical aid.” My father didn't switch to Momentum. He died! At that stage, he was on the Discovery Advanced Illness Benefit and Compassionate Care Programme. An amount of over R7000 was given for the first week of 2019 and the last week of his life. To the best of our knowledge, we are unaware of any amounts outstanding from this time or any other possible explanation for how this "debt" originated.
In the week in July that I spent trying to find answers, I was sent the same statement a handful of times (from a "do not reply" address) to state that my mom didn't owe any outstanding amounts to Discovery. The call centre personnel said the reason the amount was R0 is that under South African law, this kind of debt is written off after three years. My mom became the main member in January 2019, more than 3 years before her doctor's appointment in February 2022. If any "debt" did exist, should it not have been written off prior to this?
After hundreds of rands in airtime and countless hours spent on the phone trying to speak to someone who could help us, on 15th July we were told that Discovery staff would investigate the source of the debt. In the last phone call that one of their staff made to my mom, she imp**** that although the rest of the debt had been written off, because we were asking questions, the debt may be reinstated.
Since July, we have tried to escalate the issue to the Principal Officer via email. It is November and we are still waiting for answers.
The part that infuriates me the most is the way they evade all forms of communication. They never informed us of any debt to begin with, they didn’t tell my mom the reason her claim was denied and they still can’t tell us why they are supposedly entitled to this money.
They literally ***** money from pensioners. Their conduct is not just *********, it's also *******.
Regards
Discovery Health Servicing Team
Regards
Discovery Health Servicing Team
I don't understand why Discovery has a license to practice as a medical scheme.
I don't understand why Discovery has a license to practice as a medical scheme.
When Discovery refused to pay a doctor's bill last year due to an outstanding debt, it took 7 months of investigating to find this was the source of it.
The issue was caused entirely at the fault of Discovery, the alleged "debt" was still being held against my mother more than three years after the fact (which is ******* under South African law) and Discovery had completely failed to communicate with her about it since the initial incident.
Someone from Absa bank found evidence that my mother had paid the third party and enabled us to finally resolve this. (I can't recommend and thank Absa enough!)
Discovery has finally agreed to pay for the doctor's appointment that they previously refused to pay but this whole ordeal has been incredibly time-consuming, stressful and costly.
Discovery has yet to take any responsibility for any of this and we've yet to hear a single apology.
When Discovery refused to pay a doctor's bill last year due to an outstanding debt, it took 7 months of investigating to find this was the source of it.
The issue was caused entirely at the fault of Discovery, the alleged "debt" was still being held against my mother more than three years after the fact (which is ******* under South African law) and Discovery had completely failed to communicate with her about it since the initial incident.
Someone from Absa bank found evidence that my mother had paid the third party and enabled us to finally resolve this. (I can't recommend and thank Absa enough!)
Discovery has finally agreed to pay for the doctor's appointment that they previously refused to pay but this whole ordeal has been incredibly time-consuming, stressful and costly.
Discovery has yet to take any responsibility for any of this and we've yet to hear a single apology.