Do I still need Private Health insurance if I can’t use it?

We understand that this is a difficult time for all of our customers and that many people are looking to reduce costs where possible. It’s important to remember that while some services are on hold for the moment, you still have access to urgent treatment in a private hospital for the services included on your cover, with your choice of doctor along with cover for emergency situations.

We’ve adapted our extras claiming guidelines to temporarily allow claiming for telehealth consultations on important services such as psychology, counselling, physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

Keeping your cover can give you the peace-of-mind of knowing that once the pandemic has passed, you won’t have to re-serve waiting periods and you can keep using your cover as you had previously.

While a number of elective procedures have been paused, urgent and some semi-urgent admissions are continuing. This includes treatments related to injuries, cardiac conditions, stroke, cancer treatment, appendicitis, chronic diseases and a range of other services. Private hospital cover allows you to receive hospital treatment in a private hospital, with your choice of doctor.

Private patient admissions for Lung and Chest conditions, including COVID-19 related treatment, are also included on all of our products during this time.

Ultimately, it’s your doctor who makes this determination. If you’re unsure, we’d recommend you speak to your doctor.

You'll still able to receive hospital treatment for services included on your cover, at your choice of hospital, for medical conditions deemed urgent and some selected semi urgent conditions like:

• Accidents and injuries requiring hospital treatment e.g. fractured bones, wounds requiring surgery (e.g. broken hips, leg or wrist requiring surgery)
• Cardiac conditions including heart failure, heart attack, heart surgery
• Flu and pneumonia
• Chronic conditions requiring hospital treatment e.g. diabetes, heart failure
• Cancer treatment e.g. chemotherapy
• Surgery for newly diagnosed cancer – which require urgent treatment e.g. prostatectomy, mastectomy or breast lump removal for breast cancer, removal of malignant tumour such as melanoma
• Appendicitis
• Mental health services
• Pregnancy and birth
• Strokes
• Aneurysms

You can only have these treatments covered if you have the appropriate level of cover. Eligibility criteria applies.

Your specialist will be making arrangements with the hospitals that they operate at regarding recommencement of surgery and will be best placed to provide an indication of when they would be able to perform an elective procedure for you.

This will be a gradual roll out which may be different for each state and hospital. We recommend you speak with your doctor about how this impacts you and any treatment you had planned. You can only have these treatments if you have the appropriate level of cover. Eligibility criteria applies.

While public patients have gained access to beds and doctors in the private system, this is to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and is only a temporary solution. Private admissions for urgent and exceptional semi-urgent procedures will continue for private patients in private hospitals.

Because elective surgery procedures have been postponed, there will likely be more demand for these services at the end of this situation. Maintaining your current Health Insurance will give you the power to choose when and where you have a procedure, with your choice of doctor and without having to re-serve waiting periods.

We know that in this difficult time, some people are not able to access face-to-face consultations with their providers. Until 30 September 2020, we’re temporarily introducing benefits for consultations delivered via telehealth for psychology, counselling, occupational therapy, speech pathology, physiotherapy and dietetics. If you have cover for these services, you’ll be able to receive care through a video or telephone consultation where clinically appropriate.

This is just a temporary measure in response to COVID-19. Full details at Bupa telehealth consultation.

If you have dental cover, you can still claim on emergency treatment from your dentist. Examples of what’s considered an emergency are an abscess, infected tooth or broken tooth that’s causing you pain.