Johannesburg - Medical aid Discovery Health and a cancer patient have settled a dispute about payment for the patient's treatment, the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) said on Thursday.
“The parties have settled... a full report will be released on Monday once full details are received,” said CMS spokeswoman Elsabe Conradie.
The Star newspaper reported that Discovery on Thursday appealed against a CMS ruling compelling it to pay for a cancer patient's treatment.
Thobeka Xaba, 23, a Discovery member, has not had chemotherapy since March 25 because the medical aid refuses to pay for the medicine recommended by her oncologist.
The oncologist's recommended medicine, Paclitaxel, costs R32,000 less a year than Doxorubicin, the medication that Discovery wants Xaba to be treated with.
Xaba's oncologist Dr Daleen Geldenhuys said if she used Doxorubicin she had up to 40 percent chance of heart failure.
“So if the medical aid has a heart ready for a transplant, then I will give it to her because the regimen they want me to give my patient will damage her heart,” she was quoted as saying.
Geldenhuys said Xaba had an aggressive tumour that could not be removed with surgery.
On May 31, Discovery wrote a letter to the CMS saying it would not pay because it was not a benefit covered in Xaba's selected plan type and the treatment was not the level of care available in the public sector.
In June the council ruled against Discovery.
Discovery wrote back two weeks later saying it would appeal against the ruling.
Sapa