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Hospital cover and Extras cover play two very different but equally important roles in your health insurance. Hospital cover helps pay for treatment and accommodation if you’re admitted to Hospital, including surgeries, overnight stays, and specialist care. It gives you peace of mind if the unexpected happens. On the other hand, Extras cover accounts for every day healthcare costs like dental, optical, physio and chiro services. When you combine them into a Hospital and Extras cover policy, you get the best of both worlds: cover for big medical events with your Hospital cover, plus valuable Extras cover for your day-to-day health needs. With HIF, you can mix and match levels of Hospital and Extras cover to create a combined policy that fits your lifestyle and budget.

In Australia there are two types of private health insurance: Hospital cover and Extras cover (also known as ancillary cover). Combined cover is when you choose your own Hospital and Extras cover products that make up your health insurance policy. Packaged cover has both Hospital and Extras as a pre-designed product offering chosen by HIF.

The Hospital component of the cover includes cover if you need overnight or same-day treatment in hospital as a private in-patient. Depending on your level of cover, it helps cover the costs of treatment in hospital such as accommodation, and theatre fees. We recommend that you contact the hospital prior to treatment, to confirm what out of pocket expenses to expect. In relation to medical bills, you can complete a Medical Estimate Form via our website or contact us if you’d like more information. 

The Extras component covers you for everyday ‘non-hospital’ healthcare and medical services and treatments that aren’t covered by Medicare like optical, dental, physio, chiro, and healthy lifestyle services (plus other natural therapies like remedial massage and acupuncture).

Whether we’re answering your call, or helping you switch from another health fund, we don’t like to keep people waiting. But unfortunately waiting periods (the time you have to wait before you can claim for treatment) are a necessity. We wouldn't be able to offer our affordable premiums and generous benefits without them.

Waiting periods exist so we can protect our members against people who simply join us, claim large amounts and then leave. But we always try to keep waiting periods to an absolute minimum. 

Read our Health Cover Guide

Choosing the right health insurance policy is all about finding the balance between what you need and what fits your budget. 

Here’s how to get started:

• Assess your needs: Think about what Hospital services you want covered and which Extras services you’ll use most, like dental, optical, or physio.
• Consider your stage of life: Whether you’re single, a couple, or covering your family, HIF has flexible health cover options to suit you.
• Look for value: Check the benefits, limits, and sub-limits across Extras cover options to make sure you’re getting the best value for your needs.
• Get help if you need it: HIF’s team is here to help you compare options and tailor the perfect Hospital and Extras cover combination.

If you choose Hospital cover with an excess, you’ll only need to pay the excess once per-person per calendar year (to a maximum of twice per couple or family policy) if admitted to hospital. For some covers, the excess does not apply for same-day admissions and/or dependent children under the age of 18. Please refer to the individual product factsheets for more detail on the excesses that apply.

Need to make a claim? No problem, it’s easy with HIF. Visit our How to Claim page now for full details on how to lodge Hospital, medical and Extras claims.

Find out more and view the full list of services that can be claimed online.

Need a claim form?

Our claim form makes it easy for HIF Members to submit a claim. Simply download the form, type directly into the fields within the PDF, sign in the space provided and make sure you save a copy on your computer (otherwise when you send us the document, it may be blank).

Don’t forget we also need you to send us the itemised original account and receipts. You can email the claim form to claims@hif.com.au and we’ll let you know once we’ve processed it for you.

Alternatively, you can mail your completed claim form and associated receipts to HIF free of charge to the following address:

• HIF Claims Department, Whadjuk Country, Reply Paid 84423, Perth WA 6847. 

If you would like us to mail claim forms and reply-paid envelopes out to you, please call us on 1300 134 060 (or email claims@hif.com.au) and we'll be happy to pop some in the post.

Did you know that we have a mobile app for members?

We’ve now made it even easier to make Extras claims in an instant and access your membership info, policy details and claims history all in one place. Download the HIF app for free now from the Apple Store or Google Play Store.

Members can now make Extras claims online too!

Our Online Member Centre gives you access to a range of services to help manage your policy with the click of a mouse, including lodging an Extras claim online. Even better, you’ll instantly see the estimated benefit payable!

A ‘benefit’ is the amount we pay either per visit towards a service or treatment on your applicable extras health insurance policy. The amount you can claim for different treatments and services will depend on your level of cover.

An 'annual limit' is the maximum amount of benefits payable to a member in a calendar year, commencing January 1 and ending December 31. Our annual limits refresh every January, which allows you to claim benefits again for Extras services provided in the new year. 

Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) loading was designed by the Government to encourage Australians to take out private hospital insurance at a younger age and encourage them to maintain it. Essentially, if you don't have private hospital insurance before the 1st of July following your 31st birthday and then decide to join later in life, you’ll have to pay an additional 2% loading on your premiums for every year you were over the age of 30 and didn’t have private Hospital cover; up to a maximum of 70%! LHC will later be removed from your hospital insurance premium once you’ve paid it for 10 consecutive years. To check your LHC eligibility, use our handy online calculator.

Australian residents who earn over the annual income threshold for MLS purposes (set each year by the ATO) and don’t have private hospital cover will the Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS). Depending on your income, the MLS can be as high as an additional 1.5% of your annual income.

The Australian government introduced the MLS to give people an incentive to take out private hospital insurance. If you earn over the income threshold for MLS purposes, having Hospital cover for the entire tax year, may avoid you paying the MLS. To estimate your tax savings, use our interactive online calculator.

The Australian Government offers a Private Health Insurance Rebate to help people pay for their private health insurance. It’s intended to reduce the strain on Medicare (our public health care system) whilst making premiums more affordable.

Eligibility for the rebate is determined on a tiered system that is based on your age and taxable income. Claiming the rebate can be done in your annual tax return or we can make it easy for you by deducting it straight from your health insurance premium.

Read more about the Rebate

The best thing about emergency ambulance cover from HIF is that it’s included on all levels of cover!

• With HIF’s ambulance cover 100% of the costs are covered for emergency ambulance transport^{^} on all levels of cover. On Basic Extras and Vital Options, you’re covered at 100% of the cost for one emergency ambulance transport per person per calendar year.
• You’re covered if you call an ambulance for a non-urgent or non-emergency situation although a $50 co-payment per trip will apply (on selected covers)^#.
• You are covered Australia wide, making HIF a strong choice for those looking for ambulance cover in Australia.

Get a quote for Hospital and/or Extras Cover today and get emergency ambulance cover at the same time!

When you have private Hospital cover, you can choose to be treated as a patient in a private hospital, or as a private patient in a public hospital. As a private patient in a public hospital, you’ll be able to choose your own doctor, rather than being allocated a doctor that the hospital chooses. 

Here in Australia, our health system combines public and private health care services.

Medicare is the public health care system, which provides limited cover for visitors from countries that have a reciprocal agreement, but only for emergency treatment, and only under certain conditions. With Medicare however, you aren’t able to choose your doctor and you also won’t be covered for: 

• Treatment in a private hospital;
• Non-emergency visits to the doctor; and
• Services like dental and optical care or ambulance transport

Also, bear in mind that even if you are entitled to cover from Medicare, you may be put onto a hospital waiting list if your condition is not life threatening. In comparison, private health insurance (such as the policies we provide to our members) ensure you are seen by a doctor as quickly as possible, and you can even choose the provider you would like to see, ensuring peace of mind should the worst happen while you're here. In some cases, holding an Overseas Visitor Visa compliant private health insurance policy is also a specific legal requirement when applying for your Australian visa. Note: waiting periods to be served prior to a hospital admission and covered for the reason for admission under your cover. 

Your feedback is valuable to us, so don’t be afraid to get in touch. You may wish to comment on your personal experiences with HIF, or you may wish to lodge a complaint (or compliment) about the service you’ve received from our team.

Whatever your feedback relates to, we address each and every complaint and will always respond accordingly, and your input is a vital part of ensuring our organisation exceeds your expectations at all times.

To submit feedback, please email us at complaints@hif.com.au or alternatively, you can call us on 1300 134 060. Whenever possible, our friendly member service consultants will aim to resolve your complaint at first point of contact, but where we cannot resolve it to your satisfaction immediately, you can ask that the matter be referred to a senior service representative who will respond to you within 48 business hours.