Wasting stakeholders' money and lacking common sense

I am so disappointed with Discovery, especially as an ex-employee who have come to love and stand up for this company, even 4 years after I left there. This has all changed now.

On the 3rd of November 2018 my wife underwent a c-section and my baby boy was born. My wife then went to her gynaecologist on 18 December for her 6 week follow up where they also discussed contraception. My wife and her gynaecologist then decided on having her insert an IUD as she is still young and other methods of contraception just won’t work. They scheduled the appointment for tomorrow, 15 January.

When I called pre-authorisations, I was told that this doesn’t need pre-authorisation as on Keycare Plus this gets paid from specialist benefits and I would need to speak to client services. I spoke to Vuvu (not sure about spelling) in client services who said that she will not be able to confirm benefits as we did not see a GP prior to my wife seeing the gynae. I explained to her that we did not need to see the GP as my wife went for her 6 week follow up and therefore there was no charge, so why would we need to get referred by a GP? I was then told that the GP needed to refer her to the gynae for the purpose of the IUD. Once again, my wife went for a follow up and her gynae and her then took the opportunity right there and then to discuss the insertion of an IUD. Still I was told the GP needs to refer her through to the gynae (which the GP then gets paid for as a consultation by the scheme), then the gynae would do the consult (which would also get paid for by the scheme), then only they can confirm benefits for the insertion of this device which the gynae would obviously claim for again. That is 3 consultations that Discovery then needs to pay for instead of just 1. No wonder contributions are so high as Discovery ends up wasting stakeholders’ money on unnecessary nonsense! I spoke to Vuvu’s team leader, Nicole, who said while she understand what I mean with it not making sense why we should go up and down, ‘this is their process and if we don’t follow this process, we would need to pay for this ourselves’ instead of just confirming benefits and having this done and getting it over and done with.

I hope Discovery realizes how ridiculous they sound by sending members up and down for unnecessary consultations. This is wasting money on so many levels, yet we are expected to pay ridiculous increases each and every year while Mr Gore lives the good life there in 1 Discovery Place!

I have already contacted our broker at work to move me over to Momentum. If there is one thing I know, it is that Discovery has completely lost the plot! Never have I been so disappointed.

I will pay for this myself, it is all good. I just want you to know that I will not be leaving this here. You lack common sense!!!