Dear Discovery,

I am basically on my knees with tears in my eyes. My daughter has got a rare life threatning disease and Discovery keeps on shooting down for us to take out Chronic Illness Benefit for her. She was diagnosed with this disease at the age of 4 months. She is now 2 yrs and 4 months almost and still i cannot get her approved for Chronic Illness. Her Pediatrician (Dr HP Van Der Merwe) has also send motivational letters to confirm this. Her diagnostic code is: IDC-9-CM Diagnosis Code 255.13. Please i am pleading with you. We pay an enormous amount every month on medical bills and we pay our discovery plan every month, but Discovery does not want to assist in this. This is a life long illness, it will never be fixed, unless God steps in and make her healthy again. I have had no help from the staff at Discovery, they keep on putting me through to different people and no one is willing to help me. Can someone please see this as urgent and help and make our families life a little bit easier than to sit and worry every month if we are going to have money to buy her her medication. This is a rare disease, but becoming more common. I feel that discovery should put this on there list of cronic illnessess, it will help allot of people. Please Please i am begging someone to assist me and help me !!! Worried parent - attached is a photo of my daughter - please help and make her life easier especially for when she gets older.
kind Regards - Nicolette De Candia - Paarl South Africa

I requested an upgrade on my membership in December, but it was never done. I have logged several calls and sent a number of emails yet to no avail. I then in January 2010 approach our Company Broker (Samantha) to assist me as I have had no joy from Discovery regarding my upgrade. (I’m employed with NUS Consulting). I then left it in her capable hands to follow up and resolve them matter. She requested my membership number, which I provided. I once again left it at that and awaited confirmation that I was now upgraded. I even submitted a claim in the month of February March’ 10, which to my dismay was rejected. I queried this and realized that I am still on the hospital plan with Discovery and was never upgraded, only realizing that the Company broker had also not done what I requested. As we are subsidized by the firm I therefore did not bother to follow up on this, as one would assume that once employed with a firm all would be covered under one. No one from Discovery had taken the time to contact me, as they apparently left A MESSAGE for me to call? I all of a sudden rec a email re client services re a call logged, which the broker did? Why was this not the case in DecJan?

I was informed by discovery to pay R3000.00, i paid the R3000.00 as discussed with the consultant. this was during the course of september 2010. I poske to discovery consultants again during december where i was informed that everything was fine and i paid in whatever was still required in December. Yesterday i was informed that my policy has been cancelled since september 2009 because of a short payment of R122.00. i spoke to the consultant yesteday and informed him that why in the world would i pay R122.00 short if i paid R3000.00 on the same day. Now they tell me of of a declaration of health form i am supposed to have sent to them in September, which i donot know about. I asked them to check the recording of when the consultant called and told us that we should pay in R3000.00 and now they cannot find the recording. I cannot remember the consultants name or the date exactly when they called, and i dont think any one can remember the date and times or even names of consultants that call them. I know sit in a position wherby myself and my family donot have medical aid active because of a consultants error in not telling me to deposit R122.00. This is totally ridiculous...

A staff member of mine is on Keycare Plus. She needed to see a specialist and her GP referred her, sent the forms to Discovery and we got an sms with an authorisation number 11896396 from Discovery. She then visited the specialist and now we get an email saying the specialist will not be paid. Reason: 'Your specialist visit hasn't been paid as you or your chosen GP didn't get a reference number for the visit...' Why have a medical aid, go through the correct channels, get an authorisation, only to be told you haven't got authorisation. In addition to this, the specialist actually needs to operate, and his office got an authorisation from Discovery for an op, and we have already done pre-admission. Do I have to assume that after the op, we will be told that we need to settle the bill as we had no authorisation? I thought Discovery was founded on the principal of sound administration, claiming superior claims administration compared to other schemes. They do not live up to that anymore. What is happening? I do not have time to waste when we have done everything we needed to do from our side following onerous procedures to ensure we get the service we are paying for!

Took my little one to see his paediatrician without getting auth from the GP, subequently phoned discovery asking them if it's possible for them to refund me back my money, was advised that yes it can be done jus need to get auth from my GP...went to GP he told me he can't I must ask Discovery to give me a ref number for him to authorise, consultant by the name of amanda gave me her e-mail address to give to the GP if he insists on a ref number...GP e-mail her, did same on my side [Hidden Email] on the 01.03.10& 08.03.10 no response...phoned again think about five times being gived ref numbers ( REF NUMBER 1763119973, Ref number 176579896) and promises to return my call no one bothered. Guess what.. got a call from discovery today 08.04.10 to be told that they cannot refund me, Amanda was at fault etc...I feel Discovery should honor what their consultant advised me..'m taking this matter to the ombudsman and to any and every news paper who cares to listen...