STANDARD TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF VISITING THE PRACTICE AND OF RECEIVING HEALTHCARE AND RELATED SERVICES AT OR FROM THE PRACTICE
1. This practice has a general fee structure which is published by ALF Business management and endorsed by SAOPA and The Council of Medical Aids. This fee does NOT include any other affiliated medical profession expenses. Accounts are subject to your personal individual Medical Aid rules and does not warrant cover during hospitalization.
2. Accounts can be claimed from your Healthcare Funder. Claims are submitted electronically. There is however no indication of whether this will be paid by them at all.
3. Please note that unique sizing and pathological features of the patient (weight, previous or current injuries) warrant specific alteration of Off-the-Shelf items which will affect the costing of the assistive device. For this we will provide the patient with a quotation. The aspects of the quotation that could make the end-price be more or less than that quoted, will be included in the quotation. The Patient accepts this condition as a part of the rendering of health services.
4. Follow-up visits to the practice will be billed at the fee as stipulate in the fee schedule, unless it was otherwise agreed in writing.
5. All accounts must be settled within 30 days of an account being sent or e-mailed to you. In some cases Healthcare Funders will only pay a portion of the treatment costs, and such co-payment would be payable by you or the person liable for the account. This co-payment must be paid within 30 days.
6. Should you or your medical scheme or person liable for the account not pay within 30 days, we will give you a notice of 20 working days that your account is in arrears, and if you fail to settle the account within another 10 days, where after we will hand the account over to a debt collecting agency. Your failure to settle any outstanding debts, in the end, lead to you being placed on a list portraying your credit record.
7. We will charge the maximum amount of interest, as allowed by the National Credit Act, per month on all outstanding accounts.
8. In terms of the HPCSA, we have to maintain open communication channels with you. Please let us know as a matter of urgency if extra-ordinary circumstances prevent you from settling the account promptly, so that we can enter into a repayment agreement with us. This arrangement can only be made at the discretion of Steenkamp & Pollock and is only considered in exceptional cases.
9. Note that we are prohibited by ethical rules and medical scheme legislation to split an account to a medical scheme over two benefits years and/or to provide a bill to you that is different to the bill to the medical scheme and/or to levy co-payments in cases where you have an agreement with your medical scheme.
10. Patients who feel that their medical scheme should have paid (in full), can lay a complaint at the Council for Medical Schemes email: complaints@medicalschemes.com / fax (012) 431-0608, or that the terms and conditions of the scheme is unfair or benefits were not communicated clearly, can complain at the National Consumer Commission email: NNetshitomboni@thencc.co.za / fax: 086 151 5229.
ON TIME OF PERFORMANCE OF SERVICE:
11. Please note that healthcare practices are often, for reasons beyond their control, unable to keep to the time we have set with the patient.
CONFIDENTIALITY:
12. We will keep all your information confidential, also when you are a child over the age of 12. We can only release information with your written consent, even if a family member requests the information.
13. The following special cases exist where your personal information can because a law authorizes it, or because you have consented to the disclosure by signing up to the terms of the practice or your medical scheme
13.1.To motivate to your medical scheme or write a report for the Compensation Commissioner or the RAF or your employer we may have to provide them with information on your health history.
13.2.To submit an account to a medical scheme we must provide, in terms of the law, codes (called lCD10-codes) on the account that tells the scheme what your health condition is.
13.3.Some medical schemes provide all information on all the family members on a scheme to the principal member. We do not accept liability for any personal information that is disclosed as a result of this, and you should direct queries on this to the medical scheme you belong to.
AGREEING TO PARTICULAR DIAGNOSTIC INTERVENTION, TEST, THERAPY. TYPE OF CARE, TREATMENT, EXAMINATION, FITTING, 0PTI0NS ETC.
14. The National Health Act and the HPCSA ethical rules, read with the Consumer Protection Act state that patients —
14.1.Have the right to receive accurate information that allows them to make choices based on the options available.
14.2.Must be informed about the purpose of the options (i.e. what it could, or could not achieve and how factors such as one‘s own body may influence how well the treatment may, or may not work
14.3.Must be informed about the risk of the options. If the risks are very serious, the patient / client / consumer should sign a form to say that s/he knows about the possible risks and agree to it.
14.4.Must be informed about the costs of the options.
14.5.Must be issued with instructions on how to use a product / care for themselves / take medicine etc. etc.
14.6.Have the right to refuse interventions /care / treatment; but that the healthcare practitioner will explain the implications of this refusal to me, and if l do refuse, l will not hold the healthcare practitioner liable, as is prescribed in the National Health Act.
15. l understand that in healthcare results cannot be guaranteed, and that successes or failures sometimes depend on how my body reacts, or how well l carry out instructions or come for follow-ups, etc.
CHILDREN AND HEALTHCARE:
16. If the practice deals with children we insist on a responsible affiliated adult accompanying the child during consultations and instruction. Should an adult be absent, conditions of service will apply to the child even if a minor.
ON THE EQUIPMENT WE USE:
17. Equipment used by this practice is specifically designed / built / procured for this profession
RETURNING EQUIPMENT / GOODS
18. The Consumer Protection Act allows goods to be returned in the following circumstances
18.1.If we deliver at a different place or time than agreed and we have not confirmed with you a new arrangement;
18.2.If we deliver different goods than that agreed
19. Upon return of any goods, we will refund you only the price paid for the goods, less any amount that may we may, in terms of the Consumer Protection Act, charge you for the use and / or restoration, repackaging, etc. of the goods.
20. The Consumer Protection Act permits us to refuse to accept for return goods goods that we cannot accept back for reasons of public health, such as custom made articles. We can also refuse to accept goods that have been partially or entirely disassembled, physically altered, permanently installed, affixed, attached, joined or added to, blended or combined with, or embedded with the goods of other property.
21. If you specifically stated that you wanted the goods for a specific purpose and the goods do not fulfill that purpose and we said it would or for which it is clearly generally intended; or it the goods are not of the quality as we promised, or are not in good working order or are supplied in a defective state, you may also return the goods to us, subject to the following provisions permitted by the Consumer Protection Act:
21.1. We will always accept goods back for return in cases of a proven detect in the goods as we supplied it to you, or where the goods do not comply with the quality standards it had to comply with, or where we made a promise in relation to a product. In these cases we will, at our and our suppliers discretion either refund or repair the goods.
21.2.Note that we have to let an appropriately qualified person or body evaluate the product when you return it, and such a person or body must first confirm that there has been a defect, or quality problem with the product. This may lead to a delay in outcome since some of the qualified people are not available locally and this may mean allowance for travel or freight time.
21.3.Also note that if you have made changes to the goods, tried to repair it, opened it, etc, we would not be able to assess whether the product was problematic as intended by this clause, and you will not have the right to a return, refund or repair.
22. If you, the consumer / client, has freely chosen a particular style / model / type of product, returns are not permitted merely because you have changed your mind on the goods OR: we will only accept such goods back if it is in its original packaging and suitable for resale by us.
PATIENT / CLIENT / CONSUMER DUTIES
23. You have to follow the instructions of the healthcare practitioner and staff in the practice.
24. You have the right to ask questions and the staff will continuously ask if you have understood the rules of the practice or aspects of the healthcare services we render. If you do not ask questions, the practice staff will assume that you have understood everything and are fine with everything.
25. In terms of the National Health Act you or your family or other persons that come to the practice with you, should not harass the healthcare practitioners, healthcare support staff or other practice staff or other patients / clients / consumers, and should treat them with respect. The Act allows us to refuse to treat- or continue to treat you or your children, should you not adhere to thus duty. In such cases we will refer you to another health facility or practice.