Discovery Health Medical Scheme is South Africa’s biggest medical scheme, offering South Africans 23 health plans to choose from. The idea is to ensure that everyone can have access to a plan that suits their budget and their particular health needs.
The huge medical scheme also offers gap cover because they know that unexpected medical costs can leave you out of pocket and out of treatment too.
Gap cover – the essential supplement to medical aid
Discovery’s gap cover pays for those treatments where your specialist charges you way over the amount your medical aid is willing to pay.
Without gap cover you would have to pay this amount, and it can run into thousands of Rands. Many people have been financially ruined before they found out about medical gap cover.
Gap cover from Discovery is available to all those who belong to Discovery Health Medical Scheme. Unfortunately, those with KeyCare plans are excluded from this gap cover.
Discovery Gap Cover provides –
- Cover for shortfalls with in-hospital specialist claims. You get cover of up to 500% of the medical scheme rate.
- Certain out -of-hospital costs are also included, even when travelling beyond South African borders. When you choose the Discovery Gap Comprehensive option, you’re covered for shortfalls on certain out-of-hospital claims.
- Cover for co-payments on cancer-related claims, approved endoscopies, MRI and CT scans. This provides cover up to a certain amount each year for shortfalls on approved cancer-related claims. Cancer strikes fear in anyone, also because for many the treatment is out of their reach. Discovery Gap Cover provides this extra funding to help cover oncology co-payments. You can have access to advanced treatments for certain cancers.
- There is an overall annual limit amount that applies to each person.
- Gap cover from Discovery starts at ridiculously low premiums – at just over R100 for a single member ensuring that everyone can have cost-effective protection at competitive rates.
- Easy payment – you don’t need to submit a separate claim to Discovery.
- You can choose between 2 Discovery Gap Cover options – Discovery Gap Comprehensive and Discovery Gap Core.
- With Discovery Gap Comprehensive and Core you have extra gap cover that you can use for shortfalls on approved specialist claims in-hospital, This is over and above what is covered by your In-hospital Specialist Gap Cover.
- Their Medical Breakthrough Funder makes sure that members of the Discovery Medical Scheme can have access to the very latest treatments when a serious illness threatens your life. The medical aid member, spouse and child have access to a tax-free lump-sum payout on diagnosis of certain cancers and other severe illnesses.
As the largest open medical scheme and administrator in South Africa, Discovery’s mission is to provide better health for its members.
To this end they have a number of incentives to protect the lives they cover, and one of these offerings is their gap cover.
The shortfall already mentioned, would normally come out of your pocket, but with Discovery gap cover from Discovery Health you can avoid nasty surprises where you are actually denied treatment or medical bills so high that you face bankruptcy.