Bad Experience at Constantiaberg Mediclinic ?

When a person gets sick and needs medical attention, the last thing on your mind is money, however with Constantiaberg that is exactly what they see when you walk into that hospital. My husband was admitted with kidney stones on the 14th July 2021 and because he had the same problem last year, he knew it was kidney stones. He was admitted and the urologist did a procedure on the same day. A stent was put in and my husband was discharged due to Covid being so rife at this time. He was told to return on the 23rd July to have the stent removed again and whatever goes with the procedure. We had to get pre-auth and was told to pay R5900 on admission, as a co-payment, which he did on the 26th. That same afternoon Discovery called me, the wife, advising that they are paying both co-payments of R5900, as the procedure was an emergency. The agent advised that we claim the R5900 that we had paid that morning, from the hospital as it would take longer for them to process the claim than the hospital. I will advise anybody NOT to do that as the process Constantiaberg followed to reimburse our money wasn’t fair at all..... The credit controller, Nazleen Arendse, treated me like a secondhand citizen. I called her to advise that Discovery is paying both co-payments and gave her our banking account details. She paid in an amount of R4635,30. When I asked her what about the remainder of the money? I was told that the medical aid didn’t cover everything and therefore she will pay us back when they get their money from Discovery. I wasn’t happy about this and decided to call Discovery myself, only to learn that Constantiaberg actually duplicated an amount of R971,10. They received a lump sum of +- R39k and that amount was included in that total already. When I called Nazleen to advise, she was very casual about it and told me that they’ll pay me back but the case managers had all left for the day at 3pm but we’ll get our money. I was furious because we paid the hospital R5900 and not a cent less, who gave them the right to just decide to keep money back????? They reimbursed us a week later, but my concern is this: what if I didn’t call our medical aid???? And just assumed that the medical aid didn’t cover everything???? I want consumers and people out there to be proactive and to keep in touch with their medical aids and not to just take it for granted that the hospitals will sort it out for you...... in our case, they duplicated claims.....and up to now I never got an apology from Nazleen or from one of their case managers...... I spoke to Cornè, a case manager there and was told that they are running a business...... you are sooooo right Cornè, you are a business and NOT a hospital..... and we are customers (dollar signs $) and not patients..... As for me, I told my husband that if I ever need medical attention in an emergency, that he should rather just drive pass Constantiaberg Mediclinic and take me to another hospital like Kingsbury or Vincent Pallotti even though Constantiaberg is closer to where we live........ Mrs Portia Johannes #WIN