Healthcare Professionals
Discovery Health believes that South Africa has much to be proud of in its excellent medical training institutions and our world-class healthcare professionals who are among the world’s best. We are proud that Discovery Health members have exceptional doctors who give them world-class care.
We recognise that all health professionals play a critical role in the healthcare environment, by helping patients improve their health and wellbeing by sharing their expert knowledge. We believe that we have a responsibility to you, our member and our industry to use our experience, our expertise and our scale to help keep private healthcare cover affordable.
Discovery Health believes that members and doctors should be free to choose the rate of payment for medical services. Discovery reimburses claims directly to the healthcare professional when the Discovery Health Rate is billed. Claims billed higher than the Discovery Health Rate are paid directly to the member at a rate determined by the plan type the member chose. The member is then responsible for settling the claim with the doctor.
We are constantly engaging with the relevant representative bodies to look at ways of enhancing professional relationships to the benefit of both parties without compromising our fundamental principles. This has resulted in the Discovery Health Payment Arrangements which offer specialists a higher rate of reimbursement while ensuring the member has limited co-payments.
The health care funding industry needs to carefully balance the needs of all the key roles players – namely healthcare professionals, members and the scheme.
