23 January 2023: Private Health Insurance Ombudsman – HCF and Healthscope negotiations

In its role as the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman (the Office) seeks to protect the interests of people who are covered by private health insurance.

To date, hospital group Healthscope and health insurer HCF have been unable to reach a new agreement about cover for HCF members accessing Healthscope facilities after 31 January 2023.

We understand consumers who have pre-booked admissions will not begin to be affected by this until 31 July 2023, and potentially longer depending on transitional arrangements. For more about transitional arrangements, consumers should contact HCF and Healthscope:

• Healthscope Hospital Group termination | HCF
• Stay Covered :: Healthscope Corporate

In the interests of protecting consumers, the Office has arranged mediation on 24 January 2023 to assist HCF and Healthscope to reach agreement.

To assist consumers the Office has developed a factsheet with general advice about private health insurers and hospital agreements.