SIZWEHOSMED TERMINATED OUR MEMBERSHIP WITHOUT OUR KNOWLEDGE, REFUSE TO PAY OUR MEDICAL BILLS AND TOOK DOUBLE PAYMENT FROM MY BANK ACCOUNT I.R.O. MEMBERSHIP!

We are with Hosmed since 1 September 2009 and never experience any problems with doctor's bills paid or any other issues. Since Sizwe and Hosmed merged, I think in 2021/2022, we only received bad experiences with them. I have previously added a review on them on Hello Peter, regarding medical bills not paid, and then in December 2022, someone at SizweHosmed terminated our medical aid, without notifying us. What is extremely strange, is that we were told on 2 March 2023, when my husband wanted to go and collect our chronic medication (latter of which we have had to pay cash for), that our medical aid was terminated, however, we still collected our chronic medication for the months January and February 2023.

We were informed by our Medical Aid, on 2 March 2023, that our medical aid was terminated in December 2022, due to us not paying our monthly membership contributions. Reason for this enquiry escalated from the fact that we could not collect our Chronic Medication for the month of March 2023. We have had to pay cash in the amount of R664.25. I have sent SizweHosmed proof of payment for December 2022, as well as, January and February 2023. What is very strange to me is, the fact that we could still collect our chronic medication for the months January and February 2023, without any issues.

My husband, on 2 March 2023, also received a voice message on his cell phone from Ivy, Agent working for our medical aid, confirming that our medical aid was terminated.

I have again escalated the message from Ivy to Loyiso, who in turn looked into our membership and confirmed that it was terminated. I explained to her that we always pay our membership via EFT and also attached proof of payment. I also insisted that I speak to their Manager to have this issue resolved since I am a cancer patient and my husband is on chronic medication.

Loyiso, on 2 March 2023, asked me for my contact details, which I provided to her, however, I was never contacted by their Manager or any other party from SizweHosmed. A few minutes after I have provided my contact details to Loyiso, my husband (main member), received a sms stating that our medical aid was re-instated!

I have in between received forms from SizweHosmed to complete in order to become members again, which I refused, since we did not terminate our medical aid with them nor did we skipped any membership contributions.

On 7 March 2023, I provide Loyiso the Clicks statement and the till slip for the medication which we have had to pay for on 2 March 2023, which Loyiso in turn forwarded to their claims department. I have not since received any money back from SizweHosmed.

As mentioned earlier, I am a cancer patient, and my complaints started with SizweHosmed, due to them not paying my cancer bills in full and I keep on having to pay in. Cancer is a PMB and my medical aid contribution per annum is R546,000 per annum. My husband received an e-mail with an attachment from Ampath, and letter stated that he will be handed over to ITC if the outstanding invoice owed to Ampath was not paid within 20 days from the day of receipt

I then, on 6 March decided to let SizweHosmed rather debit my account in order to avoid termination of our medical aid in future and to also avoid us having to pay via EFT.

I received an e-mail from Loyiso on 15 March stating the following: "Kindly note that your claims are processed for the next weeks payment run". Till date my claims were not paid and I have had no option but to pay Ampath. . I eventually ended up paying this bill to avoid my husband being placed on ITC. A day after I have paid the outstanding bill to Ampath, I received an e-mail from Ampath confirming that SizweHosmed eventually paid the bill and that I am now in credit with Ampath.

On the morning of 26 March 2023 I received an sms from my bank regarding my debit orders, only to find that SizweHosmed took a double membership fee in the amount of R15,270.00 instead of R7,635.00. I immediately e-mailed both membership at SizweHosmed, as well as, Loyiso, to have the amount of R7,635 plus my outstanding claim paid back into my account, however, to no avail. I was informed due us skipping payment for March 2023, they took a double payment because we pay our medical aid up front (thus the payment taken was both for March and April 2023 respectively). I have sent Loyiso, Dineo and Membership proof of all our payments since my husband resigned from his employer in April 2022 and yet again, I just do not get any responses from SizweHosmed.

My LOGIC is telling me: Since we belong to Hosmed, now SizweHosmed since 1 September 2009, never skipped membership payment (proof provided to SizweHosmed), how can they now tell me that we are one month behind in paying our membership! Absolute nonsense!!!!!!

Kindly take into consideration: My husband no longer work due to the fact that he had an injury on duty and his ex-employer refused to pay him for the injury on duty. The reason for him resigning was because he lost 50% of his income and his job entailed that he must walk between airplane hangars to inspect it for fire-safety. Due to his IOD, he cannot walk far distances and his employer was not willing to accommodate him.

I am now the sole bread winner and am liable to pay all our debt, and unfortunately, I cannot afford, due to also my illness having cancer (now in remission), to go through these agonies with my medical aid just to pay my cancer invoices and my husbands' chronic medication. We might maybe once or twice a year go to a GP and we do not exhaust our medical aid at all.

I am still waiting to be refunded for the double membership taken off my bank account. I have sent several e-mails to Loyiso Nqeto, Dineo Shuping and Membership, however, I do not get any results!

Financially, we are now under tremendous pressure and would now like to have all these issues resolved!

Please, I am now begging you to assist me to resolve all my issues with SizweHosmed.

NB: For all of the above I have proof in e-mail format.

Thank you,

Mara Jansen Van Rensburg