Dr. Claire’S
BILLING + FAQ
Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery MBChB (UCT).
Fellow of South African College of Surgeons
Diploma in Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Billing Policies
Dr Claire Michell
It is your responsibility as the patient to inform your medical aid scheme of the diagnosis and planned procedure, as well as to ensure that they have all necessary details. Depending on the medical aid and scheme, you may be liable for a co-payment.
Payment of accounts will remain the sole responsibility of the patient and/or their guarantor and must be made within 14 days of a procedure, as per the terms and conditions of service. Office procedures require payment in full at the conclusion of the procedure. You may then submit your paid invoice to your scheme for reimbursement. Consultation fees are payable immediately after the consultation.
Please arrive timeously and be courteous to other patients. In order to keep waiting times acceptable, patients who arrive 15 minutes late will be re-scheduled. Patients who cancel their scheduled appointments less than 24 hours prior to the time will be charged in full and re-booked for the next available time slot.
Please note that if you require forms to be completed, medical reports, scripts, etc, there will be an additional charge.
Frequently Asked Questions
BEFORE YOUR OPERATION
If you have a medical aid it is necessary to ask your them to authorize your up-coming surgery. Without this authority, you will not be reimbursed by your medical aid. We will supply you with the codes and information required, but you will need to obtain your own authorization. Please ask your medical aid what rate you will be reimbursed at and from which fund the money will be deducted. Please note that Dr Mitchell charges above medical aid rates so there will very likely be co-payments for which you are liable.
You will be given an approximate start time for your surgery, however the times often change due to unscheduled emergencies and unforeseen events.
You may not eat or drink for 6 hours before your surgery if you are having a general anaesthetic or conscious sedation. If you are having a local anaesthetic, you may eat or drink as usual.
Please discuss all medications with Dr Mitchell at your consultation.
Generally one can follow these guidelines:
- All blood-thinning medications e.g: Warfarin, Ecotrin, Disprin etc.) should be stopped 5-7 days before surgery. As these are prescribed for different reasons, it is best to discuss with Dr Mitchell beforehand.
- High blood pressure medications: if these are usually taken in the morning, please take as usual with a small sip of water only.
- Diabetic medications: if you need to skip a meal because of being nil per mouth for surgery, please omit the dose related to that missed meal.
- Any other medications you are concerned about: please ask Dr Mitchell if you may or may not take them before your surgery.
It is best not to wear make-up during your surgery, including nail polish.
For most patients a normal bath/ shower including a hair wash is adequate hygiene before surgery. However if you have had a stubborn Staphylococcus skin infection before or are a known or possible carrier of this bacteria, please inform Dr Mitchell and a hygiene routine will be prescribed. This usually includes washing with Chlorhexidine and anti-septic ointments to apply as prescribed.
AFTER YOUR OPERATION
You can shower or bath any time after your operation provided that you have a waterproof dressing on your wound. If it is not waterproof, the dressing will need to be replaced after washing so it is better to wait 2 days.
A small amount of blood staining the dressing is perfectly normal after an operation. If, however the bleeding continues and soils the whole dressing, or is dripping out of the wound, please inform Dr Mitchell immediately.
Different procedures have different recovery times and some activites should be restricted depending on the procedure. Please consult Dr Mitchell directly with regards to this.