Report on health insurance funds

The Private Health Insurance Ombudsman has released the third annual “State of the Health Funds Report”, providing information on the comparative performance and service delivery of private health insurance funds.
The Report highlights a continuing decline in complaints to the Ombudsman, including a decline in complaints about medical gaps and issues relating to informed financial consent, as well as improvements in payment of benefits for podiatry surgery.
The main aim of publishing the Report is to give consumers some extra information to assist them with making decisions about private health insurance.
Consumer surveys show that people want independent information to assist them with making key decisions about their health insurance, including decisions to take out or change a health insurance product. The Report provides an indication of the services available for each fund in their state or territory, as well as a comparison on some service and performance indicators at fund level.
The Ombudsman recommends that people review their policy every year to ensure it covers all of the services they may need, especially as people get older and their health needs change. “
A forthcoming new consumer website, which will be managed by the PHIO, will enable consumers to view standard information about their health insurance product and will enable them to compare their product with other products in the market.
Consumers will be able to access the website from April this year.