Hospital Cover provides benefits for things like:

• Your accommodation in hospital
• Operating theatre and surgery charges
• Any test performed whilst admitted to hospital
• Any medicines prescribed whilst admitted to hospital
• Doctor’s fees (including surgeons, specialists and anesthetists) for in-hospital procedures

Health Partners offers seven hospital cover options – all of which provide you with a range of benefits in any participating hospital of your choice (private or public), Australia-wide. The table below summarises the services covered on each of the levels.

	Gold Hospital	Gold Hospital 25	Gold Hospital 50	Silver Hospital 250	Silver Hospital 500	Bronze Hospital 500	Bronze Plus Package
In-hospital services
Hospital accommodation
Operating theatre and special care fees
PBS prescriptions
Government-approved prostheses
Rehabilitation treatment
Psychiatric services
Procedures
No exclusions on Medicare-recognised procedures
Pregnancy and birth-related procedures
Sterilisation reversal
Joint-replacement procedures
Dialysis for chronic kidney failure
Surgical weight loss procedures
Cardiac procedures
Additional Benefits
Home nursing
Discharge prescriptions, prostheses and recovery aids
Home sleep studies
Chronic Condition Management
Health Management Programs
Newborn Support Program
Home Health Partner
Emergency Ambulance
Non-Emergency Ambulance

Excess and Co-payment Options

With Health Partners you can select a hospital cover with an excess and co-payment that suits you. Applying only a co-payment to your membership reduces your health cover contributions – without reducing your benefits – and is only payable if you are admitted to hospital.

To reduce your contributions even more, you can select a cover with an excess and a co-payment – the choice is yours.

What is an Excess?

An excess is the amount you agree to pay towards your hospital accommodation, should you need to go to hospital. This is payable on admission, once only per person to a maximum of twice per membership, per floating year (that is, a year from the date of your first admission).

With all Silver Hospital and Bronze Plus covers, the excess does not apply to dependant children on your membership.

What is a Co-payment?

The co-payment is the daily amount you agree to pay (in addition to any applicable excess) towards your hospital accommodation. The co-payment is limited to a maximum of 5 days per person to a maximum of 10 days per membership, per floating year (that is, a year from the date of your first admission).

With all Gold Hospital, Silver Hospital and Bronze Plus covers, the excess and/or co-payment does not apply to dependant children on your membership.

Excess and Co-payment Summary Table

The table below summarises the various excess and co-payment options and maximum limits.

With all Gold Hospital, Silver Hospital and Bronze Plus covers, the excess and/or co-payment does not apply to dependant children on your membership.

Excess and co-payments are in addition to any out-of-pocket expenses (also known as ‘gaps’) incurred for in-hospital medical treatment. For information on reducing your out-of-pocket expenses, refer to 'Reduce the Gap with Access Gap Cover' below.

Your Options

For more information on Gold Hospital cover click here.

For more information on Silver Hospital cover click here.

For more information on Bronze Hospital cover click here.

For more information on Bronze Plus (Hospital component) click here.

Additional Features and Details

The following information introduces you to additional important features and details about Hospital Cover.

The Medical Gap

The benefits you are entitled to for in-patient medical services are based on the Commonwealth Medicare Benefits Schedule. When you are admitted to hospital, Medicare pays 75% of the Medicare Schedule Fee and Health Partners covers the remaining 25%. The gap is the amount charged above the Medicare Scheduled Fee, which you pay.

Access Gap Cover

With Health Partners Access Gap Cover you can also eliminate or reduce the gap for specialist care in hospital.

Lifetime Health Cover

No Lifetime Health Cover loading is applicable to any member who is under 31 years of age or who has maintained private hospital cover since 1 July 2000 or since 1 July following their 31st birthday. For more information on Lifetime Health Cover click here.

Medicare Levy Surcharge

The Medicare Levy Surcharge is a maximum 1.5% surcharge imposed on people who earn above a certain income and who do not have private hospital cover. This is in addition to the standard Medicare Levy of 1.5%. For more information on Medicare Levy click here.

Private Patients' Hospital Charter

The Private Patients' Hospital Charter is a guide on your rights and responsibilities as a private patient in a private, public or day hospital. The guide is issued by the Minister of Health and Ageing and is available from Health Partners.

Surgery – Your Choice of Prostheses.

For most surgical procedures there is a choice of prostheses available. They can vary in cost and comparative benefits. The Federal Government introduced a new prostheses arrangement effective 31 October 2005. These changes mean that you and your surgeon will be able to choose a prosthesis from the prostheses list, that will be fully covered by Health Partners. When you and your doctor choose a prosthesis from this list you will have no gap amount to pay.

Other more expensive prostheses may be available for your surgery, but if you choose to have one of these, you will have to pay a gap amount. The gap amount is the difference between the prosthesis you and your surgeon choose and the other effective, clinically similar products available with no gap.

Your doctor can advise you which prosthesis is the best for you and which no-gap prostheses are available.

For further information download the New Prostheses Arrangement.

Click here to get a quote

Talk to a real person – not a machine
At Health Partners we look forward to talking to you and helping you choose which cover best suits your needs. Give us a call on 1300 113 113, or you can email us at ask@healthpartners.com.au.