How to Change Your Practice's Banking Details With Every Medical Scheme (Without Losing Payouts)

Changing the bank account your practice uses sounds simple — until you remember that every medical scheme pays you separately, and each one has to be told separately. Miss one, fill in the wrong form, or send it to the wrong place, and that scheme keeps paying into your old account, or stops paying altogether until it's fixed. For a busy practice that's weeks of admin and real money sitting where you can't reach it.

Here's what actually has to happen when your practice changes banks — and the fastest way to get it done without losing a month of payouts.

Why changing your practice's banking is harder than it looks

When you change banks as a person, you update a handful of debit orders and you're done. A practice is different: your income arrives from many medical schemes, and each scheme keeps its own record of where to pay you. There is no central switchboard. So a single bank change becomes a dozen-plus separate tasks, each with:

• its own banking-update form (and schemes change these forms regularly);
• its own supporting-document requirements — a bank confirmation letter, proof of practice, ID;
• its own submission channel (some by email, some still by post); and
• its own turnaround time before the change takes effect.

Get any one of them wrong and the rejection often arrives after the next pay run — by which point a month's claims for that scheme have gone to your closed account.

The manual way (and where it goes wrong)

If you're doing this yourself, the checklist looks like this:

1. Get a stamped bank-confirmation letter for the new account.
2. List every scheme your practice currently bills.
3. Track down each scheme's current banking-update form (last year's version is often rejected).
4. Complete each form with identical, correct practice and banking details.
5. Attach the right supporting documents to each.
6. Submit through each scheme's channel and record what you sent.
7. Follow up until every scheme confirms the change.

The two places practices lose money are step 3 (an out-of-date form bounces) and step 7 (no one follows up, so a silent rejection isn't caught until a payment goes missing).

The fast way: one form, every scheme

This is exactly the problem we built BankSwitch to solve. Instead of chasing each scheme one at a time, you fill in a single master form once — about 15 minutes — and we handle the rest:

• We verify the new account and confirm you're authorised to change the practice's banking, which protects you against fraud.
• You sign once, electronically.
• Each scheme's own current form is generated from your master form, correctly filled.
• We submit them on your behalf — no posting, emailing or chasing — and you can track where every submission stands.

It's a flat launch price of R1 700 (normally R2 000) per switch — one practice, one payment, no subscription — and you don't need a NetPractice account to use it. Start your bank switch here.

What to have ready

Whether you do it yourself or use BankSwitch, gather these first and the whole thing goes smoothly:

• A recent bank-confirmation letter for the new account;
• your practice number and practice details;
• the ID of the person authorised to change the banking; and
• a list of the schemes you bill.

While you're at it: stop losing money to claim rejections too

A bank change is a good moment to look at the bigger picture of how your practice gets paid. The same principle — catch problems before they cost you a pay cycle — applies to your day-to-day claims. NetPractice submits your medical-aid claims in real time, with live accepted, rejected and reversal status, so a rejection is something you fix today instead of discovering at month-end. It's free under 11 claims a month, then a flat R9.50 per claim — no plans, no contract. If you run billing for more than one practice, the Partner programme lets you manage them all from one login.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take?

The master form takes about 15 minutes. Each scheme then applies the change on its own turnaround — but you've removed the weeks of admin and the risk of a missed scheme.

Do I need a NetPractice account?

No — BankSwitch is standalone. You pay once and get a secure link to fill in your details.

Is it secure?

Yes — the account and your authority to change it are verified, and you sign electronically, before anything is submitted to a scheme.

Switching banks? Don't lose a payout. Update your banking with every scheme in one go →