Gems **********ly took out money and incorrectly advised on payments to be made

The complainant, was originally on her husband’s (Mr Padayachee) medical aid for over 40 years. Mr Padayachee passed away July 2019 and the complainant did not receive any notification that she will be automatically removed from the medical aid scheme, leaving her unable to access her usual medical treatment. In February 2020, the complainant went to visit her medical practitioner only to find out that she is not on a medical aid. On the 20th of February 2020, a payment of R18989.00 was made to offset the contributions due from August 2019- March 2020. Thereafter, a monthly contribution of R2852.00 was deducted for April and May 2020. The contribution for June 2020 an amount of R24673.00 was *******ly debited from the designated account which belongs to my daughter (Pamela Ramautar). This debit was unauthorised, leaving my daughter with numerous of her personal accounts unpaid as a result. Note that there was still no notification from GEMS to inform us of the reason for this debit. Standard Bank advised my daughter to reverse the payment which was done telephonically via Standard Bank. Thereafter, my irate daughter made numerous phone calls to GEMS to make sense of the exorbitant debit and none of the consultants could assist her in making sense of this or to find a speedy solution to counteract this obvious error that was made by GEMS. On the 4th of August, my daughter, lodged a complaint on “hellopeter”, in an attempt to get some response from GEMS to solve the matter at hand. On the 6th of August, Yvette Smith contacted my daughter and tried to mediate in order to provide a resolution. She requested for proof of payment which I had already forwarded to GEMS when I had initially made payment. It was then discovered, that the contribution of R18989.00 which was made in FEBRUARY and the contributions for April and May (R2852.00 X 2) was recorded against the deceased member’s medical aid profile (Mr Padayachee). On the 6th of August, Yvette sent a reconciliation of the account showing an outstanding amount of R14260.00 at 10.03am. On the very same day, at 10.18am she sent a second, “updated recon” of R8556.00. My daughter requested to know the reason for the outstanding amount of R8556.00, and she wanted to know how she had arrived at this amount which she was not successful in justifying. On the 14th of August 2020, I received a letter from GEMS via my daughter’s email, suggesting that I now owe R27525.00. Once again, my daughter phoned GEMS to enquire about this amount of R27525.00. I was then told about securing the GEPF medical aid subsidy. Please note, that this was never brought to my attention and my daughter was not aware of this suddenly accumulated amount of 27525.00 as a result of unmet GEPF contributions. Today, the 9th of November, 2020, I went for medical treatment at my GP and was told that my medical aid was terminated. My daughter then phoned GEMS immediately when she was informed that the contributions line is unavailable and she should visit the walk-in-centre to resolve the matter. Please note that I have not received any notification of termination of service till date. My daughter visited the GEMS walk-in-centre in Berea (Durban) where she was assisted Yolanda Stork who informed her that the medical aid has been terminated and tried to liaise with several members at the contributions and claims department. She even contacted the credit controller Yvette Smith who was unreachable. Yolanda then informed my daughter that there was no possible way for me to be re-instated on the terminated medical aid scheme unless I re- apply and withstand the waiting periods as well as pay R8556.00 towards the unresolved account. Please note that through this I the main member ) was not informed of any termination or update for that matter. I find this to be wrongful on the part of GEMS and feel as if they have not taken responsibility for mismanaging this matter and for the time that has lapsed resulting in further complications with regards to my membership. I request for this matter to be fully investigated at the earliest to find an amicable solution that will enable me, a pensioner to be reinstated on my medical aid as soon as possible.