The billing structure is determined by your medical aid. In some cases, all the chemotherapy costs appear on one account. In other cases, the costs appear on two separate accounts. Some medical aids reimburse us directly for the chemotherapy. In those cases, the invoice will contain an itemised bill for a facility fee, professional fee and chemotherapy drugs, supporting drugs and consumables. We submit this invoice to your medical aid.

Other medical aids reimburse the wholesale pharmacy for the chemotherapy drugs, supporting drugs and consumables. The wholesale pharmacy submits its invoice to the medical aid. We then invoice separately for a facility fee and a professional fee and submit a separate invoice to the medical aid. Minor variations on the above are determined by each individual medical aid.

We primarily use Dis-Chem wholesale pharmacies to supply our pharmacy. If you do not belong to medical aid, we can order the drugs on your behalf from Dis-Chem. The wholesaler will invoice you directly and they require proof of payment before dispatching the drugs to us. The payment needs to be done two days before your scheduled treatment day to ensure that the order is processed and delivered on time. We require that you pay the chemotherapy administration and facility fee two days prior to the treatment day. Unfortunately, no discounts apply.

This process needs to be repeated before each dose of chemotherapy. The same procedure applies should your medical aid not cover your treatment, or requires you to pay a portion of your treatment. Some medications require special permission from the Medicines Control Council (MCC) for use on a “named patient base”. This process can delay the procurement of drugs and is beyond our control. Unfortunately, we must recoup the expense for these applications from the patient (R300 per application).

Patients are liable for chemotherapy costs that are incurred when there is no authorisation for the treatment or when medical aids don’t honour their authorisations.