Worst ever service

Worst Services ever from Discovery Medical Aid.

I joined Discovery in May 2019, with no waiting periods because me and my son had no medical problems at the time, so on the 1st of July 2019 I went to my GP and my son was very ill with his tonsils so he referred us to to the ENT, my appointment was on the 16th of July 2019.

Then the ENT said that my son has very enlarged tonsils and we need to remove them so the doctor gave me a theatre date of the 1st of August, I then started to phone Discovery for pre authorization from the 18th of July asking them what they needed, they told me they need the PMA form from the doctor so I phoned the doctor and the doctor send through the PMA for on the 19th July 2019 and I then phoned discovery again on the 22nd July and they told me the forms has not yet been received then I resend them the forms,

Phoned them on the 23rd and they told me they have received the forms it is at the standards department for approval so I gave them 2 days then phoned again then they told me that it had to go through forensics they needed to collect the service call so I said its fine I just need an answer by the 1st of August they told me sorry there is no lead time on the service call.

So I phoned them on the 29th of July 2019 and they told me it is still at standards department but if I would like to escalate it I should get the doctor to phone them and escalate the process. Phoned on the 30th and the 31st again like 5 times a day and once again I was told the forms have been received and it is being verified I was also told to go to the hospital the day of the admission and let the hospital phone them to get the authorisation number.

So the day of admission I got to the hospital at 6 just to find out we can only phone them at 8 so the lady helping us phoned them and guess what they said they did not receive the PMA form from the doctor so I said they are not telling the truth as I have a reference number for the mail send 3 times, so the lady was told to phone back after 8:30 so she did then she was told it is still at the standards department to be reviewed.

Then someone named George phones me from discovery telling me I **** on my application done on the 22nd May I did not state my son had enlarged tonsils which I only found out on the 16th of July also saying they are going to cancel my membership and also blocking me because of not disclosing this on my application but I did not know at the time of my application then when George was asked if we can take this further if something happens to us and he just cancelled my membership he gave a laugh and said “who are you going to take this up with”. Why do I have to phone for 2 weeks and on the day of admission and only for sitting at the hospital for half of the day tell me Discovery can’t help me, why not tell me when I phone for authorisation tell me sorry mam you did not disclose this we can’t help you why wait for 2 weeks to tell me this and in the same phone call tell me you have cancelled my medical aid.

I felt like a ******** being accused of something I was not aware of and then on the 2nd of August I phoned Discovery to speak to management and guess what no one could speak to me no one wanted to help me when I asked, I was told to send an email then Discovery will phone me back, with that said the wrong email address was given to me.

They are very eager to take your money but if it comes to helping patients it’s a big problem for them. Also I did not expect this from the ‘Best medical aid’ guess not anymore