Manchester Unity Policy Change - Not including Reproduction services any more

[melbel]

With regards to hospital and theatre cost they should not be able to dicriminate based on the procedure. That is law. What they may mean is that you will no longer be able to claim the mdicare gap for the doctors part of the EPU?
Hospital cover is hospital cover pure and simple...they cannot dictate why you are there. Medical cover is different if that makes sense.
I would ask for clarification from them cos from what I know of private health you should still be able to claim the bed fee etc.

It's all very strange...my policy does not have a specific IVF clause but it covers all the bed and theatre fees regardless. The only gap we have is the basic IVF fee everyone pays upfront each cycle.

ETA: Just checked my provider. HBA covers all in hospital stuff as long as it is eligible for a medicare rebate. The only exclusion is if you are and overseas corporate visitor they wont cover IVF. So if you are a resident you are fine.

[dusty]

wow beibei that seems very restrictive. i hope you can get more clarification.

i hear you on the cost of EPU and ET. my health fund covered these until my old clinic, Sydney IVF Canberra, moved to their new premises where they were now able to carry out the procedure (previously they were done at a cosmetic surgenry facility) and the new facility had not been approved by my health fund (and i expect a lot of others)- to my shock i had to pay it all up front and got only a small proportion amount back. it is very expensive ($1500). something we hadn't been told about or planned for. this was after upping the price of an IVF cycle 30%only days before.

it pays (saves) to ask the right question and be persistent.
Good luck!

[Cuddlepie]

Thanks for sharing Melbel and dusty...

Melbel, I think they made it very clear that none of the reproduction service will be covered...but I might give them a call just to ask about the accommodation/theatre fee...thanks for the information about HBA, I will check it out. Do you minding me asking what cover you are on and how much you pay monthly?

Thanks heaps!

[melbel]

I have the ultimate package cover so pay quite a bit but then I have other health issues so need the extra cover.
the cover I looked at on the website was just the standard hospital with excess bonus..i think the middle of the road one.

Okay just checked the bottom one with an excess of $500 is about $30 a week for couples and will cover IVF. But then it has an excess so kinda defeats the purpose. Top Hospital no extras no excess is $50 a week and there are heaps of variables in between as well.

[nic]

BeiBei, our health fund (Westfund) paid towards our FS fee for EPU and transfer, plus some towards the anaethetist, between them and medicare our out of pocket for FS was about $90 and the anae. was $129. Their covers are all no excess, which is what I wanted since I knew we were going to look into why we were having trouble.
When I checked a couple of years ago their waiting period for IVF was 2 years, but in June last year when we were told we would have to do IVF, they informed me the waiting period was now only 12 months. They don't pay out any money towards the big IVF cycle fee, but I don't think many (if any) actually do.

Our family cover is the classic gold, $200.20 per month including the 30% rebate and with extras, not sure on how much it will increase though? they usually increase less than the other funds % wise, and best of all no excess. I think they may pay out a little less with some of their extras than other funds, but i don't mind at all. Since my lap in June last year, and then our cycle, we have claimed for 3 lots of hospital bed fees which have amounted to almost what we have paid to them in the last year! That's not to mention what they've paid out for the FS visits etc and our extras!

Goodluck with finding another fund, it's so hard, time consuming and confusing!

Nic

[Loula]

What a great thread to get some ideas without having to go through the pain of phoning around!!!

How frustrating for you to have all this at the moment, GL with tfing you cover and there is no need why you would have to serve your waiting times again!

wow Nic

you policy sound great

I am with HCF and had no choice with that as i TF my policy from the UK and they were the only company that were happy to 'take me on' without having to serve the waiting time and TBH i have been very happy with them. i knew before i arrived that IVF may be our only option so took this into consideration.

I think we pay $191 or thereabouts and have top hospital but minimal extras.

I don't pay any excess, although don't claim all natural therapies.

So when you say your policy covers you to see your FS do you mean the consult between cycle?

I though that PHI only really covered for hospital? which was very hard for me to adjust to as in the UK my fund covered me for everything- bt, ultrasounds, consults, the lot!! was hoping to find one her that would do the same!

[Visitor9]

I asked at the MBP retail office about the coverage on IVF and he kinda smirked and said it doesnt pay much does it!! Bed and anaestists, it really depends on whether the clinic does procedures as an inpatient or an out patient. PHI picks up a small tab on in patient, medicare threshold does it as an out patient. I'm much happier that most of my cycle is treated as an out patient and the only part that is PHI is OPU and anaest which PHI has no gap so I never get a bill except my damm excess.

[briggsy's girl]

so far (and i know i'm not really too far into the EPU/transfer side of things) i've not paid a thing for the in-patient side of IVF. our helth fund covers everything when it's an inpatient service at a participating hospital (so no excess) - and given that all of my procedures will be at the local hospital, i don't know that i'll ever have to pay. having said that, i think my health fund has a limit on the number of times we can claim on my particular plan - i used to be with another fund that was taken over/bought out, so i'm on an obsolete plan. if it comes to the point where i've used my limit, i will transfer to one of their current plans that covers unlimited ART.

we just got our letter about the rate increase - it's gone up $1.13 per fortnight - to about $90 - we have max hospital and most extra's. the excess is $50 in a non-participating private hosp, nothing in a linked one. in the 06/07 fin year, we paid about $2200 for PHI - and claimed over $13000 for hospital and extras, so well worth it for us. we pay an extra amount as DH was an old coot before he claimed PHI too - if not for that, it would be about $80 a fortnight at the moment...

FWIW - i'm with Latrobe - they also do general insurance - and on a quote i just got from them, to increase the insurance from what i have at the moment, it will ost me about 20% less than my current insurer... me thinks when my insurance is up for renewal in june we might do some reshuffling!