If an unfamiliar name appeared on a medical bill or a bank statement, here is the answer. A C Mauff and Partners is the partnership that trades as Lancet Laboratories, the pathology group. Lancet says so itself: its website notice states that the site is owned by A C Mauff and Partners, registered with the Health Professions Council under Practice Number 5201055, conducting a pathology practice under the name of Lancet Laboratories.
So a blood test done at Lancet can bill you as Mauff and Partners. It is not a fraudulent charge and it is not a debt collector.
The accounts number
- Account related enquiries: 011 358 0875, [email protected]
- Practice number to quote to a medical aid: 5201055
This is a separate line from the general one. Phoning 0861 526 238 about a statement puts you with the people who handle test results, who cannot adjust an account.
The other Lancet lines, so you pick correctly
- Cash quotations, test enquiries and results: 0861 526 238 (0861 LANCET), WhatsApp 010 101 2311, [email protected]
- Occupational health and corporate services: 011 589 5421, [email protected]
- Complaints, compliments and feedback: 0861 526 238, [email protected]
- Head office switchboard: 011 358 0800
Two head office addresses on one page
Lancet lists its head office as 12 Menton Road, Richmond, Johannesburg, 2092 under regional laboratories, and gives 4 Cedar Street, Richmond, Johannesburg, 2092 in the footer of the same page. Both are in Richmond and both come from Lancet. If you are posting something, phone 011 358 0800 first and ask which one takes it, rather than guessing.
Sorting out a pathology account
- Have the lab reference or account number from the statement ready. A date and a surname is usually not enough to find a pathology account.
- Check whether your medical aid paid part of it. Pathology is often split between the scheme and a co-payment, and the balance you were sent may be only the shortfall.
- If the scheme rejected the claim, the fix is usually at the scheme, not at Lancet: a missing referring practice number or an exhausted benefit.
- Ask for a statement in writing before you pay anything you do not recognise.
A pathology bill you did not expect
This catches people. Your doctor takes the sample; a separate pathology practice tests it and bills you separately. You may never have spoken to Lancet. That is normal in South African private healthcare, and it is why the name on the bill differs from the doctor you saw. What is not normal is a bill for a test you did not have — ask for the requisition showing which practitioner requested it.
If you cannot resolve it
- Use [email protected] for a formal complaint and ask for a reference number.
- A billing dispute with a medical scheme is a matter for the Council for Medical Schemes.
- Conduct of a registered health practice falls to the Health Professions Council of South Africa, which is where practice number 5201055 is registered.