Admin and financial information
Financial and billing information
We follow a specific billing policy that each patient and next of kin should acknowledge.
Our Practice charges the fees it regards as appropriate in terms of the experience, services and training of the professionals working in the Practice, and the cost base of the Practice. Competition law dictates that Practices may not agree to charge the same or similar fees. Fees increase on an annual basis and pricelist is readily available at the reception. Healthcare is not an exact numerical science, and an exact estimation of duration of services, or the number of items is not always possible. In some cases, we calculate the amount of medicine on the specific patient’s needs, and other factors like body weight. In many cases other health facilities, such as hospitals, theatre’s, other doctors (like anaesthetists, pathologists, radiologists), or other healthcare professionals (physiotherapists, dieticians, occupational therapists) will be involved in the patient’s healthcare. These facilities and professionals charge their own fees in addition to the fees of our Practice if they also render healthcare services to you unless as employees of the centre.
We may contract to certain medical schemes (or medical scheme options) in a particular year. In such cases we must charge at the levels agreed with that scheme. Note that unless we have agreed fees with your medical scheme, the fees that we charge and the benefits awarded by your scheme may not overlap. This means that, depending on the patient’s medical scheme, the patient might need to pay for the treatment in full or for a difference which the medical scheme does not cover.
If you are disappointed by the decisions of your medical scheme, you can approach the: Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) at complaints@medicalschemes.com or fax (012) 431-0608.Note that the CMS prefers that patients exhaust internal remedies (appeals in the scheme) first. Also note that your medical scheme may require pre-authorization and / or a motivation prior to certain treatments. Pre-authorization or scheme approval is, according to schemes, no guarantee of payment. Should you (the patient, if you are an adult, or the parent of a child-patient) not pay your account within 30 calendar days, we will give you notice of 7 business days where after we will refer your account to an attorney. This will attract additional collection- and other fees. We reserve the right to charge interest of 2% per month on overdue accounts.
Notify us early about any outstanding accounts or debts.
We encourage patients to approach us early on if they experience problems with the payment of the account. In deserving cases, we may reduce our fees to accommodate such patients. Please ensure that we always have your latest contact details to prevent you from missing any important communication from us. We may contact the person(s) indicated on your personal information form if we cannot get hold of you and your account remains unpaid.
We deal with Employment, insurance, Road Accident Fund and Compensation Fund (workplace injuries / disease) according to the specific rules set by such bodies. Please inform us should you fall into these categories so that we can explain billing in these cases to you.