Recovering from hospital

What to expect when you’re leaving hospital - and how we can help you on your road to recovery.

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Recovering after hospital

We understand that recovering from a hospital stay can be a challenging time. To help, here’s our best tips to help you prepare for your discharge, including a simple breakdown of how hospital and medical bills work.

Before you’re discharged

Preparing to leave hospital can be cause for much excitement– finally, you’re on the home stretch. But before you head home, there are a few things to consider:

Ensure you have written instructions about managing your post-hospital care. Your specialist will be able to provide this to you.
Understand any medications and instructions for taking the medication. If you need to, ask any questions before you leave. Eligible HBF members can access fully covered* dose administration aids at Member Plus pharmacies.
Be sure to ask who you should contact if you experience problems related to your treatment once you are discharged from hospital.
Make a follow up appointment with your specialist.
Request a medical certificate if you need one for work.
Organise transport to get you home safely.

Understand your hospital and medical bills

Your hospital and specialists may send you multiple, independent bills depending on how many services you received - and they may come at different times. Wherever we can, we will take care of paperwork and payments to save you the added stress and worry.

Hospital bills

Hospital accommodation bills are usually sent directly to us. However, there are a couple of scenarios where you might receive a bill:

If your hospital doesn’t have an agreement with HBF, you’ll receive a bill and will need to submit a claim to us afterwards.
If you have to pay an excess, co-payment or if you received services which aren’t covered on your policy, you will need to pay these costs out of your own pocket.

Medical bills

You may receive a medical bill from your specialist and/or other providers involved in your hospital treatment and stay, such as an anaesthetist, pathologist, radiologist, assistant surgeon or allied health professional, if they don’t have a fully covered agreement with HBF or if they charge fees in excess of the MBS Fee. If you receive a bill from your doctor or specialist, please submit your claim to HBF for assessment.

Please note: If you have already made a payment on the bill, you will be required to submit the bill to Medicare first and then provide us with your Medicare Statement of Benefit form when you submit your claim.