Health Insurence

[david]

It is a good idea to check with your health insurance whether they will except claims for dental treatment carried out overseas.

Surprising as it may seem,some private health insurance companies will honour these claims. My own company CBHS only required that the invoice be presented in Australian dollers. I claimed back over $5,000 AUD for my own treatment .This made the whole venture ridiculously cheap.

If pushed I think most insurance companies will admit their is nothing in their policy which states treatment must be carried out in Australia. 

Well worth checking out !!

[babytooth]

Mine wouldn't 

[david]

I know they didn't K, but how hard did you push?..it's easy for them to just say no on the phone.

[anne]

I just checked with my Health Insurance provider and they told me today that at the beginning of this year, government had passed legislation (?) that you can not claim on your health insurance in Australia, for any work done outside Australia.

[david]

Hi Anne,

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

I have just read the Private Health Insurance Legislation Amendment Act 2008 and can find no evidence that this is infact the case. I would be interested to hear what section of the act your health insurance Representative was referring to.

In my experience insurance companies set their own policies of what they will or will not cover.

Regards

David

[anne]

I have just checked again and was told that it was a directive from the Federal Government to stop paying for overseas work.  Apparently I should have a letter about this so will check tonight, otherwise I have asked for a copy to be provided.  As soon as I find out more information will let you know.
Regards
Anne

[anne]

Hi Dave

Found my information and I quote

"Overseas treatments - due to the Government reforms, we can no longer pay benefits for any treatment you may receive while travelling overseas.  If you need cover for an upcoming overseas trip, please call us on nnnnnnnn to discuss our travel insurance products."

unquote.

Doesnt really say much does it?

Regards
Anne

[david]

Hmm, doesn't really say much at all Anne. From my own research I can't find any evidence to support that statement and as far as I'm aware federal government reforms of the health act should be in a hard copy format accessable to the public.

David

[anne]

I agree David.

I have sent an email to my Health Insurance for their guidelines on the subject.  Be interesting to see what they come back with.  Will post their response as everyone needs to know this information.

By the way, great forum and website.

Regards
Anne

[david]

Thank you Anne,

I look forward to reading their response.

Regards

David

[anne]

Hi David

The following is a direct copy from the email they sent me. 
quote

Medibank pays dental benefits which have been performed by a registered
dentist and is based around item numbers from the Australian Schedule of
Dental Services. If you went overseas to have your dental treatment done
you would not be able to obtain any benefits from Medibank.

unquote

Nothing about Government reform....

Doesnt look like I'm going to get anything else out of them.  Therefore I think my next course of action is to get a detailed quote from my Dentist including the numbers for each item so I can get a good idea of the refund I would get, then compare to a quote from Manila.  Still think Manila will work out cheaper.

Thanks for your assistance
Regards
Anne

[david]

H Anne,

Medibank pays dental benefits which have been performed by a registered
dentist and is based around item numbers from the Australian Schedule of
Dental Services. If you went overseas to have your dental treatment done
you would not be able to obtain any benefits from Medibank.

Certainly no mention of must be an Australian registered dentist and the second point is. How hard would it be to change the item numbers to suit the local processing system? After all a root canal is a root canal and I'm sure it can be treated in only so many ways.

Anyway I'm sure that if a loop opened it would be closed with another amendment.

Just a thought. If I needed tricky heart surgery and the ant pants Dr of cardiology in the world just happened to practice in the Philippines or even Germany. Am I not covered due to the Dr working with the local schedule of services?

Thanks for contributing to the forum Anne.

David

[david]

Although there is a general reluctance by health insurance companies to accept claims for dental work preformed overseas some of our clients are still succeeding with claims. Ask your dentist to itemise your account and to have the currency made up in Australian dollars. This is obviously for our Australian clients although I would imagine it would be applicable to any country depending on the individuals health insurance policy and/ or the policy of the company.

[Vega]

I would think that the insurance companies that wouldn't cover overseas work may cover it if the work was considered an emergency. The question I have is whether there is travel insurance plans that might cover it under certain circumstances? I would think not since the condition was pre-existing.