Hospital cover that suits your needs

Also known as hospital cover, hospital insurance helps cover costs when you're admitted to hospital. It covers things like your doctors' fees, accommodation and theatre fees.

Learn more about hospital cover

It's entirely up to you. Many Australians initially get hospital cover to avoid government penalties like the Medicare levy surcharge, but the real value of private hospital insurance is in the freedom and control it gives you over your healthcare.

With hospital cover, you can go to a private hospital for treatment and your health fund will help cover some of your costs. You'll be able to choose your specialist and 'avoid the public hospital waiting list.

If you don't have hospital cover but choose to be treated in a private hospital, you will have to fund your own treatment. If you don't have hospital cover and go to a public hospital for treatment, you won't have a choice of specialist and will have to wait on the public hospital waiting list — this could mean months, or even years before you receive treatment.

Learn more about the benefits of hospital cover

While Australia has one of the best health care systems in the world*, there are many benefits to having hospital cover.

Hospital insurance helps cover some of the costs when you're admitted to hospital. It can help cover some of the costs for things like doctors' fees, accommodation and theatre fees.

With hospital cover, you'll also be able to choose your preferred hospital and doctor to receive treatment from, avoid long public waiting lists and gain access to a private room^*.

Learn more about the difference between private and public hospitals 

* Australian Government Department of Health (2019).

Hospital insurance helps cover the cost of 'inpatient' services — these are treatments you receive when you're admitted to hospital for care (e.g. for surgery). Hospital insurance helps cover your medical specialists' fees, as well as accommodation, approved prostheses and theatre fees.

The specific hospital treatments and services you're covered for (e.g. chemotherapy, a colonoscopy, tonsil removal, knee reconstructions etc.) depend on the level of hospital cover you choose.

Learn more about hospital insurance here.

Your hospital insurance cannot cover ‘outpatient’ services—these are treatments you receive when you haven’t been formally admitted to hospital, for example, tests and examinations (like x-rays and blood tests). In most cases, Medicare will help cover these services.

If you visit your doctor or specialist at a hospital, without being admitted, this is classed as outpatient hospital treatment, for which your private health insurance cannot pay a benefit. Please call us to get a quote if you’re unsure.

Depending on your level of cover, you may also have exclusions and/or restrictions. If a service is excluded, it’s not covered at all. Restricted services receive the minimum default benefit, which generally means a large out-of-pocket.

Where your treatment is an included service on your hospital cover, your hospital costs will either be fully or partially covered depending on the type of agreement your health fund has with your specialists and hospital.

With HBF, when you’re admitted to hospital for treatment you will get 100% back for the cost of your hospital accommodation and specialists so long as you choose providers that have ‘no-gap’ (otherwise known as ‘fully covered’) agreements with HBF. Just be aware of out-of-pocket costs, which can include excess or co-payments. Please note, outpatient services are not covered under hospital insurance.

Before you book hospital treatments, contact us and we’ll help you understand what you can claim, how much you can claim, and if any excess, co-payments or waiting periods apply. To ensure we give you accurate advice, please have a written cost estimate from your provider on-hand.

At HBF, the waiting periods for hospital services are as listed below.

Rehabilitation
2 months

Palliative care
2 months

Hospital psychiatric services
2 months

Pregnancy and birth
12 months

Accident cover
1 day

All other services
2 months^*

Yes. With HBF, you can purchase hospital cover on its own. Hospital insurance helps cover some of the costs when you're admitted to hospital. It can help cover some of the costs for things like doctors' fees, accommodation and theatre fees.

Yes. You and your partner have the option of either being on a couples health insurance policy, or taking out two separate health insurance policies.

With HBF, a couples health insurance policy costs the same as paying for the same products on two singles policies (before applying the Australian Government Rebate on Private Health Insurance or Lifetime Health Cover loading). It's entirely up to you to decide what suits your needs best — we recommend exploring all available options before making a decision.

Your kids can stay on your policy if they meet the criteria of a dependant.

A dependant is a child who is under the age of 21 and is:

• covered by a family or single parent policy; and
• is not married or living in a de-facto relationship.

At HBF we also choose to cover dependants under 25 years of age provided they meet the criteria in the 2 points noted above and they:

• are a full-time student; or
• earn no more than $24,500 taxable income per calendar year.