I went to the doctor in December 2009, I handed my medical aid card to Astrid and she filled in the necessary documentation, I clearly remember I never myself wrote in the membership number. Nevertheless that was done. A few weeks later Astrid phones me to tell me that my medical aid does not want to settle the account as they can not identify the member, I said that I will take it up with my medical aid, which I did and they said that when the pull out my account they don’t find any submissions from DR JOHNSONS PRACTICE. In the next year I received a lawyers letter which stated that I need to pay the account, again I phoned my medical aid and they said that they didn’t receive anything from your practice, which I found very weird, the medical aid requested that I go to the practice and ask for a copy of the proof of submission, which I did, when I was in contact with the medical aid again to tell them that I have the proof of submission how come are they not able to pick it up, that when I noticed that my membership number is incorrect. Instead of a 8 at the end of the number your staff put in a 5, which I understand is a human mistake. When I phoned Astrid and told her what I discovered, she was extremely uncooperative, all they needed to do was correct the mistake and submit it again, that was in August last year, and at that point, my medical aid was still more than willing to settle, I mean it only makes sense why they wont settle an account with the wrong membership number, in a world of today the fraud rate is rocketing. Eventually after communicating with Prodebt and Astrid, I still wasn’t able to get an invoice with my correct details on. Now my question is why must I pay over a R1000 to the medical aid which is more than willing to settle my accounts if I must pay the accounts from my own pocket? Astrid simply told me last year all my details are with the Attorneys I must request the document from them, which I did and they just sent me the same t5hing with the wrong membership number, which doesn’t help. I eventually explained the whole situation to the medical aid and they said they will submit it through with the incorrect details and see if the account can be settled, keep in mind I am no longer with Sizwe from April last year, but they were still willing to settle. After that I heard nothing from no-one, till about two weeks ago, the attorneys phoned me again with the unsettled bill, and I told them that they must not phone me, I cant do anything if your practice does not rectify the mistake, I then emailed Carla as I wanted to lay a formal complaint, after she was in contact with your practice recently she managed to get me an invoice with my correct details and I have already submitted it to the medical aid to be submitted, which I have no doubt that it will be settled as I was an active member with Sizwe when I was at the doctor. But now I am responsible for a lawyers bill of over R500 which was not even my fault to begin with! Can you imagine how I feel, highly disgusted at your incompetent staff!!! I am in no financial position to settle that bill so what now? Because of your staff that initially made a huge mistake and then refused to rectify it and just handed me over to the lawyers thinking I didn’t want to pay, which was never my words, I clearly asked that they fix what they did wrong so that they can receive their money, which was obviously to much of trouble.
What I want to bring to your attention mainly is that your practice wants to be super fast to hand someone over to the lawyers for something that wasn’t the patients fault, maybe I should also start informing the public of what incompetence is going on at your practice, that I must now sit with lawyers fees which I can not afford for something that wasn’t my fault with to begin with