Order medicine using MedXpress

Delivery of medicine

Your order will be delivered within 72 hours in metropolitan areas.  It might take up to five days in other areas. This excludes weekends and public holidays. 

If this is the first time you’re ordering your medicine through MedXpress, you can do the following:

1. Send us your chronic medicine prescription (write “MedXpress” and your membership number on the prescription).
2. Email your prescription to medxpress@discovery.co.za or upload it on the website under “order medicine” or upload it using the Discovery app or fax it to 011 539 1020.
3.  After receiving the confirmation SMS advising that your prescription has been captured you will need to call MedXpress on 0860 99 88 77 to confirm your order.
4. The agent will confirm your details, discuss generic substitution options with you and will collect any co-payments on your order.
5. You will receive an SMS when MedXpress dispatches your order and your medicine will be couriered to you within two working days.
6. If you have ordered medicine which is a higher schedule item (Schedule 5 and Schedule 6), MedXpress will need your original prescription. Please send it by registered mail or mark it MedXpress, add your membership number and hand it in at any of the walk in centres. Below is a list of walk-in centres and the address to send the registered mail to:

Walk-in centres

Remember to write “MedXpress” and your medical scheme membership number on your prescription.

 OR

Sending it by registered mail to 

P.O. Box 650866, Benmore, 2196.

Unique advantage of having your medicine delivered to your door

Once you’ve placed your first order and if your prescription has medicine with many repeats, you can then place your next order online.

In-store collection of medicine

If you prefer to visit your pharmacy or need your medicine urgently, use the collect service. Your medicine will be ready for collection the same day 3 – 6 hours after placing the order. If you place an order after 3pm, it will be ready the next working day (Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays excluded). This is a convenient way to pre-order your repeatable medicine prescriptions and collect them at your nearest Dis-Chem or Clicks.

To place your medicine order:

1. Log on to www.discovery.co.za/neworder and upload your prescription. You can also email your prescription to medxpresscollect@discovery.co.za, or upload using the Discovery app.
2. Choose a pharmacy from the list. If you want generic medicine, you will need to give your consent for all or a selection of your medicines.
3. You will receive an SMS confirming we have received your order. Where a co-payment is necessary, we will ask you to call us on 0860 99 88 77 to facilitate the payment on the phone.
4. You will receive an SMS with a reference number to confirm your order is ready for collection at your chosen pharmacy.
   Your order will be ready for collection within three hours (or six hours if there is a delay due primarily to stock issues).
5. Hand the pharmacy your original prescription when you collect your medicine.
   
   Please note that orders will expire if not collected within eight days.

Advantages of placing your order to collect at a pharmacy

There is no extra administration cost for these services – you enjoy this service just by being a Discovery Health Medical Scheme member.

You can also download the Discovery app and submit your order using your mobile phone.

More about what generic medicine are

Generic medicine are interchangeable with the original product. They will have the same desired clinical effect as the original.

They all have the same active ingredient at the same strength and formulation as the original brand medicine. Generics provide similar quality, safety and efficacy as the original product.

Generics can be up to 70% cheaper than the original product.

This is because a generic medicine doesn’t have to bear the initial costs of research and patenting before the Medicine Control Council licenses and approves it. Discovery Health Medical Scheme constantly negotiates favourable prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers for medicines. This is how we make sure we are enhancing our cover for members.

Cover for chronic medicine

We pay for approved medicine in full at any pharmacy in our network. The approved list includes a wide range of high-quality medicines for all covered chronic conditions.

Read more about the Chronic Illness Benefit.