Posts Tagged ‘south african medical aids’
The past two years (2008, 2009) have seen a few small medical aids in South Africa becoming insolvent and filing for dissolution before the year end. This has left their members in the lurch, despite promises to pay outstanding medical bills to doctors and other practitioners. While medical aid members may claim to be ignorant, the warning signs should be evident to any attentive member. In these cases, it is best to switch over to a more stable medical aid rather than waiting for your medical aid to go bust.
Providing medical aid cover for your family is an essential undertaking that does not come cheap. Medical aids in South Africa can be pricey to say the least but without medical cover, you will be at the mercy of the understaffed and overworked public health sector. Family medical aid usually involves the main member along with an adult dependent and one or more child dependents. At times other dependents, like a grandparent, may also be added to the medical aid cover.
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Medical aids in South Africa are essentially a health insurance. In the event that you need to access medical services, your medical aid will ensure that you have financial cover to meet your bills. Many practitioners, pharmacies and all private hospitals claim directly from your medical aid so as not to inconvenience you with up from cash payments.
Nevertheless the contract exists between you and your medical aid and any provider who is contracted into a medical and dealing directly with your scheme is actually doing you a favour.
Being a member of a medical aid does not guarantee that all your medical bills will be paid directly by your scheme. Certain medical aid restrictions and providers contracted out of medical means that you have to pay cash for these services. In most instances, your medical aid will then reimburse you directly for these costs.
If you have paid cash for any medical service, ensure that you get a statement and a receipt from the provider. While the receipt verifies that cash was exchanged for the service or product, the provider’s statement will contain all the necessary details for your medical aid to process the claim. In this instance, you medical aid will then pay you directly – either by check or via EFT into your bank account.
Joining a medical aid is always recommended especially if you have a family as the rising costs of private health care is not affordable for most South Africans. Medical aid cover will provide you with a sense of security and should any medical emergency arise, you can rest assured that your comprehensive cover will allow you the best medical services in South Africa. More importantly, it will spare you an experience in a South African state hospital which seems to be another important contributing factor for newcomers to medical aid services.