When you choose which option you want to be on with a medical aid, they list what they do and do not cover, I’m on Nimas Supreme and they cover physiotherapy – no problem. I’m sure Discovery states what they do and do not cover, so they are allowed to only cover the part that they mention in their terms. My med aid is 2700 a month, just for myself, as someone said above you get what you pay for and you are the one who selects which plan you’re on isn’t it. Always read all the terms etc.

If a patient requires an operation the medical aid must pay for the procedure from beginning to the end. The end being until the patient has recovered from the operation. i.e. he has returned to full health as far as possible.

In certain cases operations require ongoing care to ensure the success of the procedure.

Due to the high costs of hospitalisation patients are discharged before all necessary care is given as it is more cost efficient to do so out of hospital.

In many cases if the after care is not followed the operation is not successful and the operation might have to be performed once more.

In the case of Discovery they refuse to pay for Physiotherapy after an operation, if it is done after the patient leaves the hospital. They say they are willing to pay for it while the patient is in

hospital. As this is a lengthy process it is not feasible for the patient to stay in hospital for the extra 3 months.

The particular case I am referring to is an ACL repair. In this instance the procedure cannot have proper benefits if the patient does not have extensive therapy to enable mobilisation of the knee and leg.

Therefore Discovery are not fulfilling their obligation to their members.

I think that it is shocking that The Health Department and the government allow companies like Discovery to abuse their members, especially as all people who pay huge medical aid bills are only benefiting the already very stretched general hospitals.

As the government cannot support the whole public they should make it compulsory that for the exorbitant rates that medical aids charge that they – the medical aids- cover the necessary requirements for operations that members are “supposed to be covered for.

Why does the man in the street always have to be abused, especially by the small man that does not have the same type of funds that discovery and companies like them have.

Will government and the medical schemes board start supporting us now and put an end to the every greedy companies that benefit due to sickness and ill health.

I would like something to be done about this.

PLEASE NOTE THE OPERATION CANNOT BE A SUCCESS UNLESS PHYSIOTHERAPY IS DONE ON THE AFFECTYED AREA AFTER THE OPERATION. IF THIS IS NOT DONE THE WHOLE PROCEDURE IS A WASTE OF TIME. WHAY ARE DISCOVERY ALLOWED TO ONLY COVER PART OF THE PROCEEDURE.

THAT MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER

Whilst driving down the N1 on the 3rd of August, between Colesburg and Beaufort West, I was overtaken by at least one of SDL Financial Services (http://www.sdl-groep.co.za/) vehicles driving in convoy with three other vehicles – SDL 005 WP – a black BMW X3.
At the Beaufort West Wimpy a second Bronze coloured X3 arrived later – SDL 010 WP.

The black X3 vehicle and the other vehicles, two black hummers and a Mercedes Benz, were driving down the highway at 160KPH + (I tried following to gauge their speed) headlights ablaze, driving two abreast (one car in the yellow lane intimidating other road users into moving aside, overtaking in this manner in locations where road works were underway and speed limits dictated less than 60kph.
Amazing that these people carried on like this whilst having a web address on the back window of one of the cars in letters six inches high……..!

I was of the opinion that a complaint should be made to the police (but to be honest I forgot to do so within a reasonable time).

I emailed SDL directly to their client services address I obtained from their website, and have received no response.

The fact that they havent responded is exactly the type of attitude represented by their staff on the road – bloody arrogant!

I sent this to Getclosure.co.za, who came back to me saying SDL had declined to respond.

If they had simply replied in the first place acknowledging the issue and saying they would address it with the people concerned, it would have ended there – as it stands the people concerned were probably the people who should be doing the addressing?

How is this for behaviour from a company who’s website claims:

“Become part of the SDL family today and experience how SDL could make a difference to your life”

Creating a better lifestyle for Families!

at 6’5 I normally have this problem but the other way around.
on a flight from mauritius, the guy in front of me wouldn’t move back up and when I asked the stewardess to please move me or talk to him, she gave me a stern look and told me that it’s not policy to move people and the guy in front of me could do what he wanted.
guess I’m never flying to mauritius again.

and from his conversation I could hear he was into sales…

Makes me embarrassed to admit I actually sell discovery products. I hope these particular sales people can be trained to be brand ambassadors rather than poorly mannered big shots.

As for medical aid, Andriette said it: “you get what you pay for”. Unfortunately medical aids don’t have a magical source of money like robert mugabe. They actually have to balance what goes out against what comes in.

So next time your R250 000 knee replacement operation is covered by your 1000 rand per month medical aid plan, you can thank the people complaining above.

Interesting story – last week Sunday I had to get a rather urgent script for my daughter who was running a raging temperature and I couldn’t purchase any medication at the pharmacy because Discovery was performing routine maintenance on their system. I was politely told to “try again at 4pm”. Nice boet!