Hospital

Trying to understand how your cover works and the fees involved isn’t as easy we’d like it to be. Health.com.au try our best to be simply helpful by giving you a step by step way of understanding how it works.

We try to help reduce or eliminate your out of pocket expenses, by participating in the Access Gap Cover Scheme. 

Access Gap Cover Scheme is administered by the Australian Health Services Alliance to help reduce your out of pocket expenses. However, doctors can decide on a case-by-case basis whether or not they choose to participate in the scheme.

In the instance that your doctor decides to not participate in the Scheme, Medicare will pay 75% of the fee set in the Medicare Benefits Scheme (MBS) and health.com.au will pay the other 25% of the scheduled amount. Because doctors can set their own fees, if your invoice is more than the MBS fee you will need to pay the difference and this is classified as you’re out of pocket expense.

Remember to ask your main doctor/surgeon, anaesthetist and assistant doctor for “informed financial consent” which is the doctor’s quote. This will go into better detail of the below points.

Things to ask your doctor:

• What are your fees
• What is the MBS number for my treatments/s
• Can you tell me how much out of pocket I will be, if at all
• If I cannot afford to pay immediately, can I set up a payment plan
• Will I receive one bill or will you bill my health fund directly

Things to ask your hospital:

• Do you have an agreement with my insurer, health.com.au
• Am I required to pay extra for my hospital accommodation
• Are there any out of pocket expenses I should know about