Ampath Trust
Reviews and Complaints

20/02/2023 @ 8.30
The blood sister came to draw blood from one of my residents at a retirement village.
While the residents had breakfast she drew the blood, when one of the residents complain that she must not do it where they all are sitting and eating, she was told, I am here to do my work and continued, a few other residents also told her that it is not right, she ignored them.

Good day,

RE: URGENT VERICRED AMPATH TRUST

With reference to the above account I have been attempting to pay the above account for some time now when I firstly requested an Invoice from Ampath to ascertain the date, name of member, and details of the treatment/bloods taken to which account as above, you are referring to.

Unfortunately after speaking with many people at Ampath no one seems to care, listen or have the decency to email/send me the invoice with the relevant information so that I can pay yourselves.

Would you pay someone without an invoice reflecting the details of the account?

Why am I receiving such poor service and harassing SMS’s from you telling me to pay the above account immediately when all I want from yourselves is an INVOICE with relevant details to pay yourselves?

Is this too much to ask?

Please ensure that the appropriate invoice which I have asked for so many times is emailed to me as a matter of urgency.

I also want an apology as to why you have cost me time and money having to make so many calls, and cause me much frustration, when all that is required for me to pay is an INVOICE with relevant details from you.

I also spoke to Godfrey Nkosinathi who was quite rude and said he would send me the invoice but never did. My son had the same problem and they sent him an invoice but it was somebody else's invoice.

Up until now, I have never received an invoice

Await your urgent feedback.

Yours faithfully

February 20th 2020 I saw a doctor and had a cytology test done as I needed to be admitted to hospital. All necessary details as a private patient were given. I paid all bills directly to the Dr and hospital and received no other bills.

I was made aware of the Ampath bill of R246,30 on 5th August 2020 via sms from NCC collections agency. I immediately called and spoke to a lady who forwarded me the bill. The billing details were incorrect and for my ex husband, hence I never received it or any notifications until NCC sent it to me. I called Ampath to ask why they had not sent me the bill, they insisted they tried calling me, but could not have as the details were incorrect. I emailed them about the situation and got no response.

I paid the outstanding amount for Ampath and now NCC are still harassing me for charges owing to them saying the Ampath bill is still outstanding.

In May 2022, took my niece's baby to Sunninghill Hospital, Sandton, South Africa. The day before we did a COVID-19 test. I sat for an hour with the Ampath Administrator explaining that we do not need another COVID-19 PCR test. They gave the forms and I authorised certain tests - did not include PCR test after I already consulted the doctor that said it is unnecessary.

Ampath proceeded to bill for a PRC test and no such test nor any result or authorisation document was sent to me. In other words medical upcoding - illegal medical practices.

After numerous emails still no response from Ampath.

Good day,

I have been struggling for the past 6x months with Ampath to submit in-hospital claims correctly to Bonitas medical aid.

After numerous attempts to resolve these claims they were paid by the medical aid.

It was made clear that these claims are under investigation but Ampath proceeded with hand-over to their debt collectors. I am now being held accountable for the debt collectors account and being blacklisted.

I feel I'm being treated unfairly and Ampath should be held accountable for their mistakes.

i have being paying every cent i owe to these people and last year apparantly now someone figured out the medical aid paid me money i did not give them and straight way handed me over i really feel like im being scamed those dr should now and then check on there accounts department wats going on thete shows no supervision

I need a statement of what I've been paying during tax year to Ampath as if this could be so difficult so Ampath's account department send me a statement of R850.00 where I have have been paying more than R4000.00 to them to due my fund that was exhausted, so this means I need to go look for previous statements ets - why are you working in a department if you are unable to assist after I have send 3 emails requesting a proper statement giving all my details through this is not acceptable at all you are there to deliver a service not to sit behind the desk doing nothing

I went for a COVID test 17 January. Being 32 weeks pregnant receiving the results is especially extremely important. No results came through. I phoned the offices numerous times. on 18 January, after phoning the offices (Wilgeheuwel Amapth laboratory) she first hung up the call, after trying again confirmed that I had a COVID positive test! Whish was a Lie!
I phoned the head office again on the 19th trying to get a copy of my results and they confirmed that they have lost my test. How is this even possible.
Lying about results and loosing test results, This is extremely unprofessional.
I am honestly disgusted and shocked about the service received.

Good day
I would like to lodge a complaint with your company as on the 10 January 2022 I went to do a covid travel test at your Middelburg Mpumalanga branch as I was advise to do it a day before my departure date I well did that, on the 11 on my departure day morning I received the results stating I was positive affected with covid 19. I had no signs nor symptoms so as I have already paid for my travelling expenses I started panicking. I then on the morning of the 11 January 2022 I went for another test that morning for a second opinion of which I received the results the same night as negative. I had already missed my flight for that day because I could not travel as your results that was sent to me said I'm positive so I had missed my flight for that day. As this was confusing I went again for a rapid test of which it came back negative (clearly this declared that I was not affected by the virus). I now had to rush to the airport the next day to see if I can catch my flights to my destination, when I got there I was advised that I had missed my flight which was yesterday I tried and explain the situation of which they said I can still get another flight at an extra costs, so your not accurate results costs me not only to pay extra money on my travel but also extra on the transfers of the country I was going to and my hotels expenses, I am so disappointed in the not so accurate results that your company has given me and I believe it's not fair and feel I deserve better than this because clearly something fishy is happening here. I have lost a lot of money due to these results that were wrong. I am very upset and I'm debts because of your incompetence and not accurate results.

Ampath as as lab service is fantastic.

The organisation is however let down by the laziness and incompetence of the administrative back office.

In order to request statements of my fully paid account, I had to go through over a week of requests being sent, information being requested for archive retrieval, only to be provided with the incorrect information.

This is after having specified the date range required in writing, multiple times.

The level of reading and comprehension in the administrative ranks of this organisation is sub matric.

Calling the singular point of contact has been a nightmare in itself, with employees answering and simply hanging up.

This organisation may be a medical facility, however it is equally a private business, which needs to take a serious look at it's client interface, which according to all the complaints lodged here, is failing abysmally.

Good day,

We had a second experience this morning with the lab in Ladysmith. previously we were told not to come before 7.30 because that's the only time some one can assist with blood results.

This morning I had to take my daughter for blood test before work when we arrive there we were told that they only open 8.30 and nobody can assist. My daughter just had a kidney transplant and can't wait that long as she have to do the blood test before taking her tablets at 8. All the staff in Ladysmith is aware of it and I told them again this morning that she can't take her tablets after 8 were they told us there is nobody to assist. We prefer to use Ampath as the always friendly and helpful but since mid December and now again its not nice to get threaded that way.

I need my Ampath account to be settled and you guys are not helping or responding to my emails and my medical aid. My condition is I80.2 however you guys keep sending it to my medical aid as Z01.7.

This has been going on for 30 days now and now you want to hand me over?

WHat type of service is this?

I even included my letter from my Dr!

I need this sorted!

[protected]
Moji K

My husband and I had blood tests done at Ampath in Nelspruit on 29 Feb 2020 and settled the bill immediately by card. We got a discount for "paying immediately". I was not supplied with an invoice at the time and was told accounts will email it to me once it's generated. On 9 March, I emailed Linda Steyn on [protected]@ampath.co.za and requested the invoices.

I also emailed [protected]@ ampath on 10 March.

On 11 March I received a statement from Linda, but the referring Dr.'s (DR. MJ Lourens) practice number doesn't reflect on the statement, so I asked again for the invoice.

On 12 March, Winnie Letswalo at [protected]@ampath sent me yet another statement. Again no pr. Nr for Dr. Lourens on it.

I sent the statement to Discovery health for them to reimburse me. They reverted and insisted that Dr. Lourens'pr. nr be indicated on an invoice.

I sent another email to accounts requesting an invoice containing the pr. nr AGAIN!

She asked if there's a nr. she can call me on. I called her from Swaziland. She told me that she can't add the pr. nr as the format of the documents are fixed - NONSENSE! Otherwise no medical aid will pay any of Ampath's accounts!

She reverted saying that she doesn't understand my request and if she were to send me another, it will contain the same info and if the claim is sent to Discovery, the discount given to me will fall away and will have to be paid by me.

On 23 March, Maresa Koekemoer (koekemoer.maresa @ ampath) sends me a statement for myself and not my husband. I sent her another email asking for my husband's invoice and thst the pr. nr for Dr. Lourens must please be indicated on both invoices

ON 23 March, I sent Maresa a copy of a rx from Dr. Lourens so she can have his pr. nr and details and requested AGAIN for an invoice containing all his info to be sent to me.

I received nothing.

On 6 April, I emailed Linda Steyn again, gave her the pr. nr. and details again and requested the invoice yet again.

Again, nothing received.

On 8 May I emailed Discovery Health to ask for their help as time is running out and They will reject my claim if older than 3 months from the date of service AND ALL THIS BECAUSE AMPATH STAFF ARE INCOMPETENT!

On 10 May Discovery Health confirmed that the still have not received anything from Ampath.

On 28 I emailed Linda Steyn again to request the invoices again. She told me that Discovery Health settled both invoices.

I told her I paid by card for the bloodtests on 29 Feb 2020 and asked for invoices containing Dr. Lourens' pr. nr so I can address this with Discovery.

AGAIN she sends me starements without the pr. nr.

How many more times do I have to request the invoices containing Dr. Lourens' pr. Nr?

Is Ampath's staff stupid or just being spiteful?

Will Ampath reimburse me when Discovery Health refuses to reimburse me for the claim should I go over their "claims processing time allowed", because I kept following up and requesting the invoices, but Ampath staff are not doing what they should?

This morning I received a call from a Sr Anita Singh from Pietermaritzburg Ampath. I felt grossly disrespected by the way in which I was spoken to. I have a relative that works for Ampath and I assume Sr Anita was looking to speak with my relative. However, after being screamed at in a condescending and rude manner, I made it known that she was speaking with the wrong person. There was no apology whatsoever. Her response was to just put the phone down whilst I was still on the line. I am a regular customer of Ampath and have never found such poor and unprofessional behavior at any other branch. The way she handled this situation was pathetic. I just cannot believe that I should be treated this way and keep quiet. Also this was not the first time because it happened once in the past and I let it go. This is so wrong and I would like to think that this complaint will be taken seriously.

An outraged customer

I am infuriated with Ampath accounts and how they treated my query regarding an additional charge to my account. I live in a neighbouring country but see a specialist in JHB for an endocrine problem. Because I know my medical aid funds for pathology was exhausted, I made sure I paid cash and settled my account in full. I also didn't want a scenario where I would be harassed for payment.

2 months later, I received a statement from Ampath stating that I had an outstanding balance of R958. As I mentioned in the several phone calls and emails, I had settled my account in full and I did not know where this amount came from. To which the accounts team kept saying that I should refer to my statement. (Could they not understand that I am querying what was in my statement!?) I have copies of my invoices and quotes and the additional tests did not reflect on these so where is it that Ampath was getting these numbers. I also know that I had only done a synacthen simulation test, I did not draw any other bloods on that specific date on the statement. The accounts team were completely dismissive and eventually wrote a false narrative on my account saying I refused to pay and handed me over to debt collectors.

I visited the Milpark branch to do a repeat synacthen simulation which I unfortunately can only do with a Doctor registered with Ampath. I queried my account with the nurses there and showed them everything. They also could not understand where the additional amount came from as they saw my invoice copies and the statement which did not match. When they looked up the system, they saw that additional tests were requested by my doctor the day after my tests. This explained it and I immediately settled the account.

However, I had to be harassed and denied my simple request for the accounts team to investigate the additional amount as I knew I had not done additional tests. Maybe it was a mix up with another patient. If your accounts department can't assist with a simple query, i.e. explain that there is an additional amount due to a request by the doctor, maybe you need to reconsider how your business operates.

I swear that I will never walk into an Ampath branch again! Whilst the nurses at Milpark are lovely and were incredibly helpful with my enquiry, your accounts team do not value customers, are rude and dismissive and have not customer service skills. I am making it my mission to let everyone I know how you dealt with me. My bloods cost me at least R7, 000 a year. I promise that you will never get a cent from me. I will even forgo my synacthen simulation test just because I have to do it with Ampath.

I would also suggest that you have a look on hello peter and other online sites to see how many other people your accounts department have infuriated. (infuriated being a politically correct word).

I had to take my son for blood tests and we went to Ampath in Midstream Mediclinic here in Pretoria. The sisters weren't wearing any gloves and at the third area where they eventually drew blood the sister was so careless, she was decanting the blood from the syringe into the tube and she messed my sons blood over her fingers. I can't believe how unhygienic the sisters were. In this day and age when dealing with blood you have to wear gloves! This has to be addressed. It makes me think about the integrity of the needles they use and the hygiene of the rooms. Please have these sisters trained!

I gave been having a problem with your staff that does not know how to apply the correct ic10 codes when ever I go for my ip blood tests, however, I had the most incredible good attention from one of your staff at the mulbarton hospital her name is ashoorra, she went out of her way to help until where she could then she put me speaking with your accounts department with a man by the name of jack, which in my opinion he should not be carrying out the function that he is pretending to know about, and the only thing he did was raise his voice, ignore what I was suggesting and sending me back to my medical aid in the most arrogant and rude manner you can possibly expect from an accounts person. Please relief from this duty and I am sure he would produce better by doing something at his level of manners. Your lady ashoora on the contrary stayed after ours even to help me and get the problem sorted for now.

On the 24 Jan 2018, I received a bill from Ampath who advised that I have outstanding amounts that I need to settle. I querried that account as this amount was incorrectly billed from my medical savings account instead of InHospital account. I was told by Greta Molemo from Debtors Department that this will be investigated. I followed up on the investigations that are being done on the 31 Jan 2018 and Dineo Mabena gave me the same feedback that investigations are underway. February 22 Mickey Joubert gave me the same update when I followed up on the querry.

Today March 28 2018, I recevied a call from Dept Collectors regarding this account which Ampath is supposedly investigating so I'm shocked by the fact that an account I querried with NO HELP from Ampath has been handed over to Debt collectors while NO feedback was given to me on why the account was billed incorrectly, whats the feedback on the investigation and how did they decice to handover for debt collection?

I need this resolved as I'm not liable for this account due to incorrect billing, and if Ampath feels I'm responsible then they must give me enough reason for this.

We have just returned from our annual holiday and there was a SMS to say we have been handed over for an outstanding account!
We have no knowledge of this or have ever received an account...
The SMS does not say what, when or how much!
Maybe this is a hoax but we need to sort tis out asap.
Not sure what to do?
PLEASE e-mail me at [protected]@absamail.co.za