Accounts
Escalating health care costs is of major concern to us all.
Anaesthetic costs covered by medical aids vary from scheme to scheme, and within a scheme between the different options. The level of cover and excess (co-payment or ‘gap’) is determined by your individual medical aid and plan option.
The choice is yours as the consumer and it is important to remember that we have a contract with you, the patient, and not the medical aid.
It is your responsibility to understand your medical aid benefits. Please keep in mind that the medical aid societies do not have the mandate to decide what a doctor or specialist may charge for his/her professional services. A Medical Aid may only decide what they will reimburse to their policy holder.
We advise all patients to investigate getting Gap Cover to avoid a potential co-payment.
As professional practitioners/specialists, we endeavor to render top quality, cost effective and ethical anaesthesics without overburdening our patients financially.
Charges
Please note your anaesthetic fee is a separate account from your hospital and surgeon’s account.
Your surgeon has chosen to work with us as he/she feels we offer the anaesthetic service that allows him/her to get the best possible surgical outcome for you.
This practice charges a private rate in line with some of the largest medical aid schemes in the country.
LEARN MOREFee Structure
Anaesthetic fees are a summation of the pre-operative consultation and a time-based procedure fee.
Additional clinical modifiers may increase the fee as they place the anaesthesia in a higher risk category and require certain advanced components to be added.
Please note, if your procedure is unplanned or an emergency, it will attract an additional fee irrespective of the time of day.
LEARN MOREElectronic Submission
All claims will be submitted electronically to medical aids registered on the Elixir system.
Please note, it remains the patient’s responsibility to determine the amount payable by their medical aid and whether payments will be made to the respective service provider(s) or directly to you as the member/patient.
If the medical aid pays any funds directly to you as the member/patient – it remains your responsibility to ensure that the respective service providers’ accounts are settled in full.
Charges
Please note your anaesthetic fee is a separate account from your hospital and surgeon’s account.
Your surgeon has chosen to work with us as he/she feels we offer the anaesthetic service that allows him/her to get the best possible surgical outcome for you.
This practice charges a private rate in line with some of the largest medical aid schemes in the country. Our fees are viewed by most medical aids as fair and reasonable and are also linked to the current inflation rate.
Please note, if, on your account with us, there is any shortfall in payment from your medical aid, or where your medical aid fails to pay us for any reason – you will personally be responsible for the settlement of this account.
If you have Gap Cover Insurance, our bill will be covered in full. You, as the Gap Cover policy holder, will however have to submit your own Gap Cover claims and will still be responsible for the outstanding balance to our practice within the 30 day payment timeline.
We do however have payment arrangements with a few specific medical aid plans. In addition, we have direct payment arrangements with some of the larger medical aids which avoids co-payments completely if you are a member.
Fee Structure
Anaesthetic fees are a summation of the pre-operative consultation and a time-based procedure fee.
Additional clinical modifiers may increase the fee as they place the anaesthesia in a higher risk category and require certain advanced components to be added.
Please note, if your procedure is unplanned or an emergency, it will attract an additional fee irrespective of the time of day.
The pre-operative consultation is needed to assess your risk factors to enable planning for a safe and appropriate anaesthetic. Anaesthesiologists are forced to assess patients on the day of surgery (as most Medical Funders have blocked admission the night prior to major surgery) and in a limited time period prior to the commencement of the daily operating list. While the anaesthesiologist may only spend 5 – 10 minutes with you, this time is used effectively to assess your recorded medical history and physical health/wellbeing, to perform an examination to exclude any anaesthetic risk factors and to plan the nature of the anaesthesia.
Anaesthetic cost estimation and Pre-operative consultation
It is often difficult to discuss finances in a busy general ward. We advise you to contact our offices for an anaesthetic cost estimate no later than 2 days prior to your scheduled procedure.
Communication
Statements are emailed to patients as soon as possible after the procedure.
Late payments
Amounts outstanding for more than 30 days will be handed over to our debt collectors for collection, and the patient will be responsible for any additional costs incurred.