Terms and Conditions

Billing and Accounts

At Patricia De Caires Physiotherapy, we strive to use ethical billing procedures. We bill according to our findings – that is why it is important to do an assessment if the patient has not been treated for a specific condition, or have not been to the practice in a while. This will require a longer treatment session (1 hour) to ensure a proper assessment is done.

We have a contract with you as a patient, although we send the accounts to the medical aid on your behalf. It is your responsibility to liaise with your medical aid and ensure that Physiotherapy is covered in your plan. Patricia De Caires Physiotherapy takes no responsibility to advocate for treatment on the patient’s behalf, unless discussed between the therapist and patient. If your plan requires specific treatment codes (ICD10 codes) to cover physiotherapy, or a referral is needed from a doctor to activate a specific benefit – it is the patient’s responsibility to acquire all the relevant information before Patricia De Caires Physiotherapy sends any account to the medical aid. This will ensure payments without rejections.

If the patient has run out of money or has no medical aid savings, or if you know that your medical aid will not pay for physiotherapy, it is your responsibility to settle the account after the treatment and follow up with your medical aid. It remains the patient's responsibility to follow up with the funder in the case of a non-payment of the practitioner.

The coding structure used is as per the NRPL (National Reference Price List) and in accordance with the Tariffs that the Medical Aids have established. Each Medical Aid has slightly different prices for each treatment modality and therefore the treatment prices may differ.

Settlement of accounts may be done by using Cash, Credit or Debit Cards and EFT if arranged.

If an account is not settled by either the patient or the medical aid within a reasonable period of 3 (three) months from the date of treatment, Patricia De Caires Physiotherapy has the right to send the account to a debt collector. All additional fees will be for the patient’s account. It remains the patient's responsibility to settle ALL accounts for treatments received.

Appointments not kept can be charged for, at the discretion of the treating physiotherapist. If an appointment is not cancelled in a reasonable time (3 hours) before a treatment, the patient will be responsible for paying either the amount of a full treatment or a part thereof.

If a patient is late for their appointment, the remaining time of their appointment will be used. This is to prevent the remainder of the appointments to run late during the day.

It is the responsibility of the patient to familiarise themselves with the approximate pricing of treatments.

Confidentiality

We strive to keep all the information that we obtain from our patients confidential, this means that we will not discuss individual patients or situations with anyone. All the information that the patient disclose to the treating physiotherapist will be kept confidential and stored in a safe manner.

All patient records, notes and information regarding the patient is kept in a secure cloud storage and is password protected. Information is kept for 10 years since last date of treatment.

On the consent form that is signed by the patient prior to treatment is a list of parties that Patricia De Caires Physiotherapy is allowed to share information with. If you have not given consent to share the information, it will be kept secure and not shared. If, however you have chosen not to share the information with your Medical Aid – this might result in non-payment of treatments.

Patient Responsibility

It is the responsibility of the patient to ensure that all information given is correct at all times, this will ensure that the medical aid claims are not rejected and that the patient is easily contactable.

We require a lot of information from our patients to ensure that we treat each injury as thoroughly as we can – it is the responsibility of the patient to disclose all relevant information regarding the condition/injury. All medical information is needed, even if the patient does not think that it is important.

If a patient feels uncomfortable at all, they have to inform the treating physiotherapist and adjustments can be made to make the patient more comfortable. Patients must be aware that they have the right to refuse certain treatment modalities if they feel uncomfortable, however, the physiotherapist will only use treatments to help the patient and intend no harm.

Compliments, Complaints and Concerns

We would love to hear from you, anything that might bother you is important to us. If the patient has any complaints or concerns, please send an email to info@decairesphysiotherapy.co.za.

The situation will be dealt with discreetly and addressed as necessary.

Consent Forms and Information Sheets

Please download these files and complete them before your first session, you may either print the forms or email the completed forms to admin@decairesphysiotherapy.co.za