Paying for hospital costs

You may receive separate invoices from the hospital, each of your doctors, and each of the other medical practitioners, or some of these services may be grouped on a single invoice. 

Hospitals

Hospitals will usually charge us directly, and we’ll advise you when we’ve paid the invoice on your behalf. If your cover has an excess, you will need to pay it directly to the hospital before or on admission. 

Doctors

Doctors who participate in Access Gap Cover will usually send invoices directly to us, and we’ll pay them directly. If they send you the invoice instead, forward this on to us for payment. 

Other medical practitioners

Other medical practitioners will usually send you an invoice for payment, which you should submit with your claim to Medicare along with any payment receipts. There are two ways you can do this:

1. Submit your claim to Medicare. When you receive your Medicare Statement of Benefits, send it to us with your Union Health claim form and original accounts.

2. Submit your claim to Medicare along with a Medicare Two-way claim form, and they’ll forward your claim to us.

Contracted hospitals

We have contracts with an extensive network of private hospitals which enables us to pay agreed benefits for services included on your cover. Usually, this means you have nothing to pay for a hospital stay unless you have an excess on your cover or there are medical out-of-pocket expenses.

You can also choose treatment as a private patient in a public hospital. However, as we don't have agreed contracts with public hospitals, your treatment may cost you more. You can confirm the costs with the hospital prior to admission. Remember, you can be treated as a public patient in a public hospital at no charge, even if you have private health insurance.

Our hospital contracts vary from time to time and you may have additional out-of-pocket costs for stays in non-contracted hospitals, so please check our find a hospital list before each admission.