Going to Hospital

What to do before going to hospital

We want to help make your stay in hospital as worry free as possible, by providing sound advice and helpful information before you’re admitted.

We strongly urge you to call us as soon as you become aware that hospital treatment may be needed. We will provide personalised advice and information about your benefits.

We do everything possible to provide you with accurate information, but we are only able to provide you with an estimation - sometimes what is planned is not always what is actually performed.

To provide you with an estimation, we require specific item numbers for the operation planned and for any implanted prostheses items. These item numbers can be provided to you by your specialist.

Private or Public?

To ensure that the full cost of your hospital accommodation is covered, Latrobe has agreements with participating private hospitals and day procedure centres throughout Australia. Non-participating private hospitals may charge more for their services and you might not be fully covered for these costs. You have full cover for treatment as a private patient in any Australian public hospital and you can exercise some choice over the specialists who will care for you.

Admission to a non-participating private hospital

We cannot guarantee full cover if you elect to be treated in a non-participating private hospital. You may incur a large gap expense. If you are planning treatment at a non-participating private hospital, you are strongly urged to contact us first.

Admission to a public hospital provides several choices that you should be aware of:

• Under the Australian Health Care Agreement, it is an individual’s choice whether to be admitted as a private or public patient.
• You are not obliged to be a private patient.
• On admission, the public hospital will ask you to complete an election form stating your choice.
• The hospital staff must not advise you to be a private patient.
• Electing to be a private patient allows you your choice of treating doctor and the option of a single room if available.
• Single rooms in public hospitals are subject to availability on admission.
• Allocation of these rooms is subject to the patient’s medical condition. If you are allocated a single room due to a medical condition, the hospital is not able to charge a single room rate.
• Admission as a private patient enables medical providers to bill you for their services.

Non-Medicare covered treatments

Private health insurance may not cover or fully cover hospital or medical costs for procedures that do not have a benefit payable under the Medicare Benefit Schedule. Examples of such procedures are cosmetic surgery, procedures performed by podiatric surgeons or reversal of sterilisation. Your doctor can advise you if Medicare will pay a benefit for your treatment.

For further information click here or call 1300 362 155