The private health cover of millions of Bupa and Australian Health Services Alliance customers will be impacted by Healthscope's contract cuts, but the Insurance Ombudsman suggests patients with pre-booked care shouldn't face out-of-pocket costs.
The private health insurance cover of about 6.6 million Australians will be impacted by Healthscope 's termination of hospital contracts with Bupa and the Australian Health Services Alliance. Healthscope has ended agreements with Bupa and the Australian Health Services Alliance to cover the treatment and surgeries of Australians in 38 hospitals nationwide.
We've taken a look into whether Australian private health customers will actually face out-of-pocket hospital costs and whether they are able to negotiate better policy deals for themselves.The short answer is that it depends on the type of surgery or treatment you need and whether you've already booked into a Healthscope-run hospital run to have it performed.
Those guidelines say minimum insurance coverage conditions vary depending on the type of treatment or elective surgery a person is undergoing. "Insurers and hospitals should be flexible with this time frame if the patient's particular circumstances make it difficult for them to access alternative services within this timeframe," the guidelines say.
If you choose to have a surgery or treatment performed at another hospital which isn't run by Healthscope, you should still be covered in full without additional costs. There are four more in South Australia including Ashford Hospital, Flinders Private Hospital, Griffith Rehabilitation Hospital and The Memorial Hospital.
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