Bankmed
reviews and complaints

Good day,

My wife and I a seriously not happy with bankmeds service and I am going to take the matter further and to the medical board.

We have been on a medical scheme and November 2022 that ended as we were going back on bankmed as of the 1st of December 2022. Bankmed has placed us on a waiting period even though we have never had a gap in medical aid. This is utter bull. I am receiving 2 different stories from to different bankmed consultant's and I am fuming. We are paying for medical aid and yet I still have to pay cash for doctor's appointments!

I am considering going back to Discovery as this is [censored] service that we are receiving from bankmed.

My GP has been giving me advise and informing me as to what steps I need to take as this is totally unacceptable!

Advise also I we dealing with rude consultants and to top it off he tells me that I have no right to change medical aids as I am not the main member!

We submitted all required documents and still no success. If I knew we would have such issues I would have never joined bankmed again and stayed with discovery as I am spending cash at GP visits and paying for medical aid I can't use!

Celeste is there anything you would like to add with regards to the pathetic service we are receiving?

Good Day

In the fisrt week of Jan 2011 I took my son to the dentist to have an extraction done, our appointment was for 10:30. When we got to the dentist, I was told thatI resigned from the medical aid. I was a member of the medical aid but changed from traditional to basic. I spent plus minus 2 and a half hours at the dentist and several calls to bankmed to sort out this matter, which resulted me in having to leave the dentist and my son not having an extraction as no benefits could be confirmed.

At 14:30 on the day I got a call from a lady Veronica who confirmed that we could go ahead, that everything was in place - 4 hours later. I called the dentist to find out if he had a booking which I was told no. The closest booking I got was for today - 04-04-2011.

Today 04-04-2011 I asked my sister to take my son to the dentist and has now discovered that the tooth has broken so badly that it needs to be extracted in theatre - guess what Bankmed doesn't cover this cause I am on Basic.

Where does this leave me and my son who now has to endure the pain of the broken tooth stuck in his gum all because he couldn't have his tooth extracted on the initial visit cause my details weren't transfered yet?

I am now so desperate that my son has the tooth extraction that I asked to have my plan changed but was told I couldn't.

Bankmed what do I do know?

When my daughter was born in May 2009, she went for bloodtests. Of the 4 bloodtests, 3 were paid and guess what...the most expensive was not. Apparently, the laboratory used a SAMA tariff code and not the NHRPL tariff code by which Bankmed supposedly operate on. People, this does not get diclosed to you in the Rules of Bankmed, not in the Guide for 2009 and neither does the lab inform you upfront as well. All it states in Bankmeds guideline for patology benefit is the following, '100% of Scheme rate subject to R3300 pfpa.Thereafter paid from available savings. Nowhere in the guideline does it mention the NHRPL tariff code. It is only mentioned in the glossary and is refereed to as a guideline...not a law! To date I have not received a satisfactory answer from Bankmed regarding this issue. Please read the rule 4.37 and 4.38...very misleading and open for interpretation of a different kind. Bankmed have a very benevolent attitude. Sadly in the financial sector we are not able to chanfge medical aid unless one's spouse is on one already. Had this been the case I would have left already!