BERF Terms

1. What BERF Is

The BedWatch Emergency Relief Fund (BERF) is a pool built from a share of annual and institutional subscription payments. Its purpose is to contribute toward the emergency medical stabilisation costs of qualifying subscribers at registered BedWatch Africa partner facilities.

BERF payments are made from the available BERF fund balance — the running total of contributions collected, minus everything already paid out. BedWatch Africa checks this balance before approving each payment; a claim cannot be paid if doing so would take the balance negative, and payment may be deferred until the fund is replenished by further contributions.

BERF is a goodwill contribution, not a contractual obligation and not insurance. BedWatch Africa reserves the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue BERF at any time with 60 days' notice to annual subscribers.

2. BERF Eligibility

To be eligible for a BERF contribution, all of the following must be met:

• You must hold a current, paid annual or institutional BedWatch Africa subscription (day pass, monthly, and visitor plans do not qualify)
• Your subscription must have been active for at least 30 days before the emergency (waiting period)
• The emergency treatment must have been received at a registered and verified BedWatch Africa partner facility
• The emergency must be a genuine acute medical emergency — not a routine consultation, elective procedure, or planned admission
• Only one BERF claim per subscriber account is permitted per 12-month rolling period
• The treating facility must be an active BedWatch Africa partner in good standing

Some accounts are granted BERF eligibility directly by BedWatch Africa (for example, complimentary or lifetime-access accounts) under the same per-claim cap and limits as any other eligible subscriber.

3. BERF Contribution Amount

The maximum BERF contribution per qualifying claim is GHS 1,000, paid directly to the treating facility, not to the subscriber. It covers a contribution toward emergency stabilisation costs only and does not cover the full cost of treatment, hospitalisation, medication, surgery, or ongoing care.

For a facility that has not yet had 5 BERF claims approved, the maximum contribution per claim is GHS 500 while that facility is still building a track record with BedWatch Africa. This lower cap applies to the facility, not the subscriber — it is not currently stated to subscribers before they submit a claim, and this page is the first place it is disclosed; the operator should decide whether to surface it more prominently (e.g. in the claim form itself).

4. BERF Claim Process

To submit a BERF claim:

• The treating facility submits the claim, including the subscriber's reference, the emergency category, and an itemised cost breakdown
• A BedWatch Africa claims officer reviews and approves, rejects, or requests more information
• If you arrive at the treating facility more than 8 hours after your SOS was triggered on the platform, your claim is flagged for manual review rather than automatically rejected — the claims officer looks at it individually
• Approved claims are paid to the facility once reviewed; there is no fixed guaranteed payment timeframe, and payment is always subject to the available BERF fund balance (Section 1)

5. BERF Exclusions

BERF does not cover:

• Routine or non-emergency consultations
• Elective procedures or planned admissions
• Treatment received at unverified, non-partner, or suspended-partner facilities
• Treatment received before the 30-day waiting period has elapsed
• Second or subsequent claims within a 12-month rolling period
• Day pass, monthly, or visitor subscribers
• Any amount above the per-claim cap (Section 3), or above the facility's probationary cap where it applies

6. Fund Balance

Each qualifying annual or institutional subscription payment allocates a share toward BERF at the time of payment. BedWatch Africa tracks total contributions collected and total amounts paid out, and reviews the resulting balance before approving each payment (Section 1). This page does not state a fixed percentage or a fixed minimum reserve, because neither is currently a hard rule enforced in the platform — stating a specific percentage here would overstate a commitment that does not yet exist as a coded, auditable rule. The operator should decide on and, if adopted, have this specific figure implemented before it is published here.

7. Legal Classification

BERF is structured as a subscriber community contribution fund. It is not:

• A health insurance product
• A medical scheme
• A guarantee of payment
• A contractually enforceable obligation

BERF has not yet been reviewed by Ghanaian legal counsel against the National Health Insurance Act 2003 (Act 650) and the Insurance Act 2021 (Act 1061). This review is outstanding — see the lawyer-questions list the operator has been given alongside this page. Until that review is complete, BERF should continue to be offered strictly as a discretionary goodwill contribution, not marketed or administered in any way that resembles an insurance product or guaranteed benefit.