The development follows a warning two months ago from travel agents that Discovery and other medical schemes were not providing sufficient cover to satisfy European Union regulations. The rules say travel insurance must provide on-the-spot payment for emergency medical expenses and repatriation, which until now South African medical schemes have not done.
Medical aid members have had to pay for their out-of- hospital care themselves, and then claim the funds back from their scheme administrators.
Following discussions with European embassies, Discovery has now scrapped this reimbursement process for out-of-hospital emergency care on its international travel benefits, which are available to all members except those belonging to the cheapest and most basic KeyCare plans, and will pay service providers directly.
Discovery Heath’s Vitality CEO Alan Pollard said the change would have little impact on the scheme.
The Finnish and German embassies were among the first Schengen states to stop accepting local medical scheme travel insurance benefits for visa applications in March. This week representatives from the two embassies confirmed that Discovery Health’s revised travel benefits were now acceptable for visa applications.
The Schengen countries are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
German embassy spokeswoman Sigrid Sommer stressed that no group-wide decision had been reached, saying each Schengen country would decide independently on whether or not to accept the travel benefits provided by local medical schemes.
