Links

Liberty Medical Scheme website

Online Servicing

Liberty Baby

Queries

Should you wish to query your medical aid benefits or update your details, please click here.

Contact Details

Customer Call Centre:
0860 002 163

Private Bag X35
Claremont
7735

Help to give the gift of life June is National Blood Donor month and the South African National Blood service is making a special appeal for donors to come forward. The 2010 FIFA World Cup event will increase the demand for blood stock levels. Donating blood means giving a gift that money cannot buy and science cannot create. It will benefit accident victims, surgical and cancer patients, children with severe anaemia and women haemorrhaging due to pregnancy complications. People with Blood Type O are particularly in demand as donors because their blood can be used on any patient, until that patient can be matched to their specific blood group.

Donating takes about 30 minutes and is completely safe – all needles are new, sterile, used only once and incinerated after use. Your body will replace the amount of blood donated in around 24 hours.

Remember to eat a good meal prior to donating blood.

For more information on how to become a donor, call SANBS Toll Free: 0800 11 9031 or visit: www.sanbs.org.za.

If you're a member on the Bona Plus option, you need never worry about "running out" of doctor visits, provided you make use of the healthcare professionals on the CareCross network. This handy list, available at www.carecross.co.za includes General Practitioners (GP), dentists, optometrists, radiologists and pathologists.

Primary cover at your GP includes minor surgical procedures, listed blood tests and X-rays, prescriptions for acute and chronic medication according to a formulary list and pre- and post-natal care including two ultrasound scans per pregnancy. Cover also includes basic dental benefits such as fillings, extractions and cleaning and an optical benefit available to each beneficiary every 24 months.

It may not always be possible to consult a CareCross GP for an after-hours emergency or when you are out of town for some reason. In these instances, you can pay for the treatment directly and then claim the money back from CareCross. Just download the reimbursement form from the CareCross or LMS websites and return it to CareCross. (This out-of-network benefit is limited to three visits per family per year and there is an annual limit of R1 000. Claims are paid at NHRPL rates.)

For specialist care and hospital benefits, remember to confirm with the Liberty Medical Scheme Contact Centre those which fall outside the scope of CareCross' benefits. Call 0860 002 163 for assistance.

Members on the Platinum Complete and Titan options have access to dental management services provided by the Dental Risk Company (DRC).

Platinum Complete members' benefits include:

• In-hospital (MMB): reimbursed at 300% of Scheme rate
• An elective dental benefit of R9 400 per beneficiary or R13 100 per family per year. This is an all inclusive limit that includes the dentist, anaesthetist and hospital services
• No limit on trauma as a result of facial fractures, cancers and congenital abnormalities in the case of children born into the Scheme
• An out-of-hospital above-threshold reimbursed at 100% of Scheme rate
• No limit for basic care and a limit of R8 000 per beneficiary and R12 200 per family for specialised care per year

Titan members' benefits include:

• Basic dentistry covered at the Scheme rate. (Motivation may be requested for extensive treatment plans.)
• One dental check-up a year per beneficiary
• Specialised dentistry, including:
  • Surgery as per the Scheme rules and covered at the Scheme rate, subject to clinical protocols and guidelines
  • Chrome dentures (one frame per beneficiary, in a five-year period)
  • Orthodontics based on pre-authorisation for members younger than 18 years, subject to a 35% co-payment
  • Periodontics for preventative and maintenance therapy
  • One fixed prosthodontic (crown) unit per family per year

Remember to contact the DRC Call Centre to check what your cover for any given procedure is, and for pre-authorisation of all specialised procedures, hospital procedures and four or more fillings, or extractions. If you are having a procedure that requires hospitalisation, you will also need to get hospital authorisation from LMS in addition to the dental pre-authorisation required from DRC.

As per the announcement in last month's issue of Alive, our 12th Annual General meeting took place on 28 May at the Wanderers Club in Illovo, Johannesburg. Following the amalgamation between Liberty Health Medical Scheme and Medicover Medical Scheme, the Council for Medical Schemes required that LMS reduce its trustees from 10 to 8. A voting process took place and Leon Smith and Dr Bisi Lawal stepped down as trustees, effective 28 May 2010.

When Liberty Health Medical Scheme amalgamated with Medicover Medical Scheme, we communicated our new banking details to members.

It's very important that you ensure that your monthly contributions payment is going into the correct account. If it is still being paid into the old bank account, we will have no record of payment and your membership may be suspended. This will impact your benefits and affect your ability to claim.

Please remember to always add your membership number as the reference to your payment into our account. For example, if your membership number is 4512345 then use "4512345 Contribution" as the reference.

If you want your monthly payments to be made automatically, make use of our hassle-free automated debit order service. Simply contact us on 0860 002 163 and we'll help you to set it up.

... that you can access a wealth of information via our website? Check out your member information to make sure it's correct, look at the progress of your claims and access all the contact details for our different healthcare service providers. The website is also the place to find product information and download brochures and application forms. Read news articles where LMS has been mentioned in the media, or peruse your Alive newsletter in case you missed an issue. These and many more things are just a click away, so visit www.libmed.co.za today.