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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

CANSA is encouraging all South Africans to sign a pledge to raise awareness of a preventable disease.

On 4 Feb, on World Cancer Day, South Africans joined the rest of the world as it turned its attention to the growing crisis of cancer, a disease that kills more people than Aids, malaria and TB combined. Many people still think of cancer as unavoidable and untreatable, but nothing could be further from the truth. Research shows that up to 40% of cancers are linked to lifestyle factors and can be prevented by not using tobacco products, eating high fibre and low fat foods, drinking water, getting plenty of exercise and watching your weight. The Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) also reports that up to 90% of cancers are caused by environmental factors. "The war on cancer could be won if humans were no longer exposed to environmental carcinogens such as chemicals, viruses, bacteria [and] UV light," it reports.

To mark World Cancer Day this year, CANSA encouraged everyone to sign the World Cancer Declaration, to raise awareness among governments and health policymakers. To show your support, visit the CANSA website (wwww.cansa.org.za) and enter your details or download a pledge form. You can also visit your nearest CANSA office to sign the pledge.

Please be aware that from 1 January 2011, we have changed our emergency transport service provider from Netcare 911 to ER24.

Members should contact ER24 on 084 124 if they require emergency medical assistance.

New membership cards bearing the ER24 telephone number have been sent to all members. Members who have not received their new card should call the Contact Centre on 0860 002 163 to request a replacement.

Automatic default to other options

As mentioned in our November 2010 correspondence with members, the Corporate Network and Silver Focus options were discontinued and ceased to be available on LMS from 1 January 2011.

Members on these options were given the opportunity to change to a different option on the Scheme during the Option Change Period. This period has now ended, so if you were previously on the Corporate Network of Silver Focus options, and did not choose your own new option you will have been automatically defaulted to other options.

Members on the Silver Focus were automatically defaulted to the Gold Focus option, which offers excellent benefits, such as unlimited cover in the event of an accident and generous cover for in-hospital medical treatments.

Members on the Corporate Network option were defaulted to the Bona Plus option, which offers hospitalisation, cover for 27 chronic conditions (including HIV), as well as primary care by a CareCross network provider.

Please refer to the Member Guide for details of the benefits and contributions on each of these options, or call our Contact Centre on 0860 002 163.

Keep your medical costs to a minimum by choosing healthcare professionals who charge the Medical Scheme Rate — and negotiating with those who don't.

Shopping around, choosing your healthcare professional carefully and using your negotiation skills can save you money by ensuring you don't need to make excessive co-payments when visiting your doctor. In the past Liberty Medical Scheme covered medical bills at the National Health Reference Price List (NHRPL) rate. However this pricing system was scrapped in July 2010, leaving medical schemes and healthcare providers without a government-regulated guide on what rates to charge. In the absence of this benchmark, medical schemes have been left to calculate their tariff structures and negotiate favourable rates with providers.

We have negotiated a fair and reasonable rate as far as possible with all the major service providers, e.g. hospitals, pathologists, pharmacies, etc. to ensure that our members are not requested to make co-payments. However, should you visit a healthcare provider who charges more than the Scheme rate, you will be required to pay in the difference.

To save money, check that your doctor doesn't charge more than the LMS rate. If they do, it's worth trying to negotiate a discount with them for immediate payment. Some doctors are happy to give a discount if you pay cash straight away, and you can then claim back from the Scheme.

Ensuring the Scheme's ongoing health.

In order to ensure the continuing financial wellbeing of the Scheme and to protect the interests of existing members, we have embarked on a new dynamic debt recovery programme to deal with bad debt from members who have resigned from LMS.

This process involves sending ex-members two reminder letters of any outstanding payments, and following up with two telephone calls in the month following the member's departure from the Scheme. If we receive no response, the matter is handed over to our debt collection agency which provides a professional and efficient service to recover bad debt.

We are confident that following this procedure will result in greater recovery of bad debts which will, in turn, ensure the ongoing health of the Scheme and the protection of existing members' interests.