Fedhealth Scheme unacceptable behaviour toward long time client

I had some financial difficulties at the beginning of this year and one of my debit orders for my Fedhealth payment bounced. I called in to sort it out and they said they would double debit the next month. I thought everything was sorted and the month passed. During the first week of the next month I went to get my chronic medication and was told it was not working.

Upon calling through I find that no double debit went through and that it was never put on the system. I didn't notice the debit not going through as I have many many debit orders going through every month. I tried to rectify it and do a reinstatement with Fedhealth, they made me pay some reinstatement fees and some other rol***** amounts and things that I supposedly owed adding up to a couple thousand and promised that after that I would be reinstated. I was not.

Another month passed, with many calls and emails even. They were consistently asking me for more documents, to fill in forms and to sign declarations of health etc, which I without delay attended to and sent through, promised every time that I would be reinstated. Finally I received a letter saying I was declined. Reason: Outstanding documentation. When I checked which document it was, it was one I had already sent. I called in and sent it again, this time they received it. After some time I got another letter, I was declined again. No reason.

I was very upset, I corresponded with Fedhealth and they said that since we were out of the three months grace period and would have to reapply. They sent me an application form and I set to reapplying and sending in everything again. I was tired of all the back and forth and declining for no reason but it was not a problem, I just wanted to get my cover back and go back to normal. After all that, I was declined again. No proper reason.

I was forced to sign up with Bonitas who have implemented a 12 month waiting period on chronic conditions. One of the dependents on the medical aid is diabetic.

Fedhealth's error with the debit order, incompetence and nonsense regarding getting my cover back delayed me over the 3 months which is now causing my family and I to suffer. Bonitas cover is not as good and I was very very happy with Fedhealth. I was a long time customer of Fedhealth who never had any other problems besides that one month this year and this is how I get treated. I tried complaining higher up in Fedhealth as well as to the Medical Schemes Board with no success.

I am now stuck paying for insulin, testing, doctors appointments and blood tests CASH for the 24 year old diabetic dependent as well as a R5000+ installment to Bonitas every month for a medical aid I cannot use until November 2018. They will not even let these charges deduct from day-to-day.

If anyone has similar financial or debit order issues, do not trust that the call center is efficiently taking care of it, make sure you get confirmation, preferably written. It's also very important to be aware of the 3 month period. If you are without medical cover for more than 3 months ALL medical aids will implement waiting periods on you when you sign up with them, between 3 and 12 months. When you have issues regarding payment that are taking too long to resolve you are better off terminating your cover and signing up somewhere else.

I hope this helps someone else avoid everything I went through with Fedhealth.