Last year we had viva care, and I found them to be increasingly bizarre. Originally, I would call and announce my visit. No problem. The last call I had last year, I was told I had to speak to a physician, and that if I didn't, I might be bumped up to a higher premium. I asked if that was a change and the woman told me that no, it's what I signed in the contract. except I never signed a contract like that - we'd had viva care between 2012 and 2016, and increasingly, I found fewer english speakers and more rude service agents. They could never find my doctors in their listings.
btw, my wife had to go to the hospital in Germany 6 months ago. All we had to do was call CSS and later show our insurance card in the hospital. We never received a bill or form to fill in or anything.
I'm new in this forum, so please write me if I do something not correct. Also English is not my native language, so again sorry if sometimes I make strange errors in my messages
My question looks close to this topik, so I will just ask here and don't create independent topik for this
Just got my Swiss permit and start to think which insurance is better. The main criteria is a price, so now I check telemedicine way, at least for a first year.
Only base insurance, with 2500 CHF.
Now I received two good offers, and I'm thinking which way is better: SanaCall (CSS) or SanaTel (Avenir).
But my problem is: now I don't speak German at all (I live in German part, but in work I speak English). And I'm not sure if I start to speak well soon. So, now I need English-speaking support for medical service.
SanaCall is a bit cheaper than SanaTel, but I'm confused. I have not found if SanaCall supports English-speaking callers.
SanaTel- I found in internet they support English.
SanaCall- I have not found this information.
Could somebody please describe the real situation, based on experience
1. SanaTell really can speak English if you call
2. SanaCall can (or can't) speak English.
3. SanaCall is so ugly? or it's sometimes and in special cases, so if I don't have a special requests, I could get enough good service?
Thank you!
In addition to all of the issues about there is a very important detail which I missed before. It has been clearly explained by the FRC (Federation Romande des Consommateurs, this association defending consumeers).
They created special pages for each insurances:
https://www.frc.ch/wp-content/upload...4_sanacall.pdf
Pay attention to the rule about medicine given and the sanctions: If the doctor (or pediatrician) is not prescribing "generique" (generic drug), then it's immediate sanction, 50% of the cost not refunded. If I remember correctly its entirely not refunded, maybe it's a mistake in FRC page.
Which means, that they need to know and be very careful about that while giving you the prescription...
Now ask yourself, is it worthy, especially for the very little amount of alleged saving you are going to make?
From my experience, in a year there has been 4 or 5 incidents where generic were not given, despite me clearly specifying that to the doctor. The pharmacy will not give generic IF the doctor did not specify on paper. It can also be possible refund issue if the medicine name on prescription is different than the one on the bill. Result: a few additional hundreds francs gone, all according to the rules.
As for the rest, I finally got some refund for the medicine abroad, not even sure it's all there, but 10-11 months after, and with all the hassles, I think I'm done. Of course, there's still the impending issue regarding the bill where I allegedly infringed the rules, which I disagree. An issue which can only be taken to Ombudsman and further.
For the transparency, I move that insurance to EGK Care, the difference is almost insane. There is nothing to do, no numerous hours in scanning, uploading, verifying, complaining about bills. Almost no administration either.
No call center. Nothing. One needs to go to doctor, they handle the bills and if there's a the "quote part" to pay, they send a very simple bill and that's all.
Choosing Sanacall and their telemedecine, was in retrospect, the worse mistake I ever done in Switzerland, by far. Ok maybe not, probably just behind going to Ford as that was more expensive mistake.
You have been warned!
See full explanation here:
https://translate.google.com/transla...iers-payant%2F
In short, yes sometimes for doctors one needs to be pay first then send the bill for refund. Some doctors are sending bills directly but then the patient can not verify the details. To be fair, I think I am advanced in the topic, yet to understand all itemised thing from Tarmed is very difficult. I was merely able to see, each times, for my previous GP that it was generously adding consultation time to the bills. The rest is series of coded expressions.
My GP is moving praxis and will be able to bill the insurance directly from now on (goody - the bills from my health insurance simply come through my e-banking, so paying my share will be peanuts from now on, considering time).