Payment and Refund policy
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Purpose:
We pride ourselves in providing accessible and affordable healthcare to all patients. All services
rendered to the patients attract a fee payable before the time of the consultation. Payment all services
are at the time of phone call and/or booking an Appointment. Fees payable, payments made,
cancellations and refunds are clarified to enable transparency for the patients as well as ease of
operations for the Staff members.
Scope:
This policy is applicable to all doctors providing Virtual Consults by way of Video or Telephone
Consultations.
Definitions:
Virtual Consultation A Telephonic or Video Consultation offered to a patient by a doctor.
Consultation Duration A normal Consultation is of 15-minute duration
24Telemed healthcare workers These include, but are not limited to Doctors, Nurses,
Clinical Assistants, and Case Coordinators.
Consultation Charges Fees payable by a patient for the Virtual Consultation services rendered
by 24Telemed. doctors.
Online Charges Consultation fees payable by a patient for requesting a medical care by phone
and Virtual Consultation.
Invoiced Amount Fee amount generated and charged to the patients by way of Invoices
created in the patient’s file on the Patient Management Software.
Payment Fees payable or paid by a patient for the Services rendered to them based on the
Invoice generated.
Refund Number of monies to be returned to the patient for failure to render a service or the
cancellation of an appointment.
Credit Amount of monies put into credit on to a patient’s account on their file, which could be
used for payments for a future service fee.
Appointment Cancellation The cancellation of a scheduled appointment with a doctor, which
may be done by the Patient or the doctor.
“If patient does not attend an appointment” Patient’s failure or lateness to present for a
scheduled appointment
Rescheduling of Appointment Change in date or time of a booked appointment to defer it to a
later date / time, initiated by either the Patient or doctor
Breakdown of an Appointment An appointment that is unable to run the course of its entire
duration of 15 minutes due to technical or connectivity issues.
Payment and Refund policy
Termination of an Appointment An appointment that is discontinued by either the doctor or
the Patient, part way through its normal duration.
Policy:
General Considerations:
All Patient transactions including Invoices, Payments, Credit notes & Refunds must be recorded
within the PMS in the patient file.
All Credit Notes & Refunds and any Invoices & Payments with altered charges, must have
appropriate annotation describing the reason.
Any disputes in relation to charges, payments, credits & refunds will be addressed by the
Management Team.
Phone or Virtual Consultation (Online) Charges:
All Phone or Virtual Consultations rendered by doctors for patients will attract a fee payable by
the patient.
The fee structure of the Online Charges can and will be different to the In-hospital and in-clinic
charges.
The fee structure of the Online charges will be reviewed and adjusted periodically.
Fees payable by the various patients will be based on a variety of factors including, Enrolment
status, Age, Demographics, Service types.
Patients requesting Virtual Consultations via the Online portal will be presented with the
applicable Charges at the time of requesting an appointment booking.
Appointment confirmation will only be done after the Patient has made the online payment
for the service that has been requested.
The Consultation charges have been designed to ensure that subscribed patients receive
services at a lower price compared to unsubscribed.
During the introductory phase, the fee structure will be as follows:
SINGLE PAYMENT
FOR EACH
CALL
SECOND OPINION CONSULT
VIRTUAL
CONFERENCE
CONSULT
N300
N5,000
N10,000
o
The fees stated in this document relate to a single consultation of 15 minutes duration.
Cancellations, No Show, Rescheduling:
Payment and Refund policy
Cancellations:
Upon booking and confirmation of an appointment, a patient may choose to cancel the
appointment either immediately or at a later stage with no cancellation fees and a complete
refund.
If patient does not attend an appointment:
Upon booking and confirmation of an appointment, a patient is expected to connect and be
present for the Virtual Appointment session 5 minutes before the scheduled Appointment time
o If a patient fails to present for the scheduled Appointment 5 minutes after the
commencement of the scheduled Appointment, the patient will have been considered
not to have attended and the Appointment will be cancelled.
o If a patient fails to present for the scheduled Appointment altogether, the patient will
have been considered not to have attended and the Appointment will be cancelled.
Should a patient wish to book a fresh appointment due to their absence, they can choose to do
so, but will have to pay the full Consultation fee as applicable.
Rescheduling / Rebooking:
Upon booking and confirmation of an appointment, a patient may choose to reschedule the
appointment either immediately or at a later stage, due to change in circumstances.
The monies refundable to the patient will be dependent on the duration of time between the
cancellation of the appointment and the time of the scheduled appointment.
Any rescheduling of Appointment done at the scheduled Appointment time, no credit or
refunds would be available to the patient. Initial money paid will be retained for rescheduled
appointments.
Doctor Unavailable:
Sickness, personal emergent circumstances, and other unforeseen events can lead to a
scheduled doctor not being available for a Scheduled Appointment Session.
If a doctor is unavailable to attend a Scheduled Appointment Session, administrative staff will:
o In conjunction with the scheduling team, ensure the availability of a replacement Doctor
to manage that planned session.
o Get the Appointment book for the replacement Doctor opened
o Contact the various Patients who have scheduled Appointments and inform them of the
change in the Doctor with the option to, either be attended to by the replacement
Doctor, or to reschedule the Appointment to a different day and time when the original
Doctor is next available.
Payment and Refund policy
If the patient is willing to be attended to by the replacement Doctor, there will be no change to
the charges that the patient has already paid.
If the patient wishes to reschedule the Appointment to a different day & time to be attended by
the original Doctor, the charges paid by the patient will become applicable to the rescheduled
Appointment. There will be no additional charges levied.
If the patient neither wishes to be attended to by the replacement Doctor, nor reschedule the
Appointment, the patient can choose to cancel the Appointment, the fees paid by the patient
will be fully refunded.
Breakdown & Termination of an Appointment:
In the event of an IT / connectivity / technical failure during a Virtual Consultation, the Provider
needs to phone the patient, inform them about the technical issue and offer to reschedule /
rebook the Appointment at the next available time at no extra cost to the patient.
o If the patient does not wish to reschedule / rebook another Appointment, the current
appointment will be considered as a “failed” encounter and patient would be
refunded the full Consultation fees
The rapport between a patient and a Provider could breakdown during a Consultation, owing to
a variety of factors, including demands for Controlled Medications, unrealistic patient
expectations or interpersonal differences. In the unlikely event of a breakdown in the rapport
between the patient and the Provider, during a Virtual Consultation, the Provider will gently
inform the patient of the need to terminate the Consultation
o For Terminated Consultations, fees paid by the patient may be partially or fully refunded
on a case-by-case basis. The decision to refund the monies or not would be at the
discretion of the Provider concerned and the Senior Management team
Credit & Refund:
All monies that need to be refunded to the patient must be recorded on the patient’s file in the
PMS, by way of relevant Credit notes associated with the appropriate refund amount.
The refunds will be made directly into the patient’s account that was linked to the Online
payment gateway.
A patient can choose to leave the amount paid as a Credit balance in their account on the PMS,
for use towards future Consultations.
All Refunds will be processed by the 24Telemed Claims Processing Unit.