Netcare Alberlito - ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS...

We took my wife into to Netcare Alberlito hospital a couple of weeks back for unknown reasons.

The moment we got there, the guy has his credit card machine ready, which makes sense, as it is an emergency admission situation and he wants R1500-00, which I pay and THEN I AM TOLD THE FOLLOWING by an Indian gentleman at the front desk - 'This is for medication and possible other things used in the emergency rooms, BUT the moment your wife is admitted, the medical aid will refund you'

From there, they spend 5 mins with my wife at emergency and then take her to get a scan. As she finishes, I get a call to tell me to pay for the scan. I go to their private office and I am very rudely told that I need to pay NOW and have the woman roll her eyes at me when I say that I'm sorry, but no one told me to pay for the scan right away and in Johannesburg this was submitted to medical aid. She tells me that it works differently here and again rolls her eyes at me. I say thank you after a R1664 payment made from my side - treatment was rude from the get go, PLUS I was told to pay, AFTER it turns out that they submitted to medical and medical PAID THEM!! So know they have double the moneys paid to them and once informing them of this, they basically say we'll have to wait a month and see what happens to the payment before starting a refund process. We confirm with the medical aid (Discovery) that they are talking absolute nonsense and that the medical aid paid and won't revoke a payment that has already been processed to the service provider - we had to fight hard to get medical aid to pay us the money back.

From there, my wife is admitted - the Dr. was really good. The nurses were good and friendly as well. The Dr. then,in our chats, tell us that his fees are fully covered by our medical aid, and so it the procedeure that they might have to do. The anethetist and others say the same - your medical aid will fully cover my services...

Then we get a bill for an extra R7700, with no explanation or breakdown - basically pay R7700 now. My wife keeps asking for what wasn't covered, but to no avail and to rude accounting staff who just couldn't care. The attitude is 'it is what it is'

Today, we get another 'updated' bill, whereby the money that was,according to their front desk people ' refunded the moment your wife gets admitted' being 'absorbed towards the owed amount'

So flat out lies from their front desk people [about the R1500], terrible accounting department [no reasons given and you can't ask questions - just pay and shut up] and don't even try and talk to them about money or medical aid whilst a loved one is going through hell - medical ,which is supposed to cover certain aspects [most supposedly] means nothing to them - Money now. I feel that the attitude is 'pay or we won't even look at you' or 'pay or you don't get you scans' and 'we don't care what you had before, as you are in KZN now'

The stress we went through at a time where we were supposed to only focus on my wife's healt during the nearly week she was there is ridicoulus.

I miss Wilgeheuwel in Johannesburg, as they understood the premis of treating people coming in for medical attention like people and not ATMs.