Medibank Health Insurance

Everybody knows that making something confusing, misleading and overcomplicated creates an excellent opportunity for ripping people off and minimising or even denying the service. It appears that Medibank is doing exactly that. The most recent communication from MBP says that a government reform required them to reclassify all health covers into 4 types - basic, bronze, silver and gold, to simplify the situation with private health insurance and make it easier for consumers to compare health funds.

As a result, MBP renamed the basic hospital cover (which most people were taking to avoid Medicare levy surcharge and, at the same time, get some useful health cover) into some "bronze plus select", introducing alongside a pile of covers like basic accident, basic plus, basic starter, basic everyday, basic plus healthy start, basic plus healthy start essentials, basic plus healthy start top, bronze everyday, bronze select, bronze plus, bronze progress, bronze healthy start, bronze healthy start plus, bronze healthy start plus extra, etc, etc... you get the gist. So instead of 3-4 covers, there are now dozens to dig through. To 'aid' with that, MBP removed the comparison tables. 'Simplification' Medibank style.

Prices are of no help either, as there are covers differing in price in just $1/month, yet drastically different in the length of the list of what they cover. There also nearly identical covers drastically different in price. For example some old covers that have been renamed, ended up costing much more than the same covers under a different name available to new customers. Essentially, MPB is fleecing people who paid their premiums for years, while trying to suck in new victims of this confusion.

As a result of this reform, Medibank also removed multiple covered services from some covers, added 1 or none in place, yet had the audacity to say "don't worry, we won't change your current premiums", yep, you don't have to pay extra for more confusion and less cover.

Medibank can blame the reform for what they like, but it's their appalling implementation of this reform that is the problem, not the reform itself. The reform might have prompted the rearrangement of the covered services, but it certainly did not force Medibank to keep charging people the same premiums for services that have been removed.

According to media reports, sever thousand people have recently ditched their private health insurance policies. What other proof does Medibank need?

So a quick review of all the comments and the standard reply being "I'm sorry, etc,etc we'll personal message you." Time to stop being ripped off by this, forever opening emails with a standard theme of due to Government "bla bla bla" we're putting prices up and taking this and that and a few other things away from you.
Soon we'll be paying for the privilege of getting absolutely nothing that is needed for people getting older.
Time to go back to public system I think.
Why do you keep moving the goal post.
Todays email was we are now "because of government regulation" taking varicose vein surgery and putting it under heart surgery. Oh! its ok, its still accessible to you but you need to pay extra!!
C'mon Australians, stand up. Enough is Enough!!
If you have a reply, call me and I will copy paste post your answer here,

And yes Medibank, don't post this, I'll understand, and I will check back in.

Cancelled my policy with them because retail staff is rude, couldn't put through the correct claim after 3 times. Try to cancel over the phone, staff refuse saying that he'll help me put through a dispute and I should wait before cancelling. Contact them again about cancelling via live chat they said they will remove my direct debit details and have someone call me back during working hours. Next thing I know I was charged my usual fortnightly rate. Called again and their excuse this time - on order for them to put through a transfer certificate they have to charge me. I will have to pay $3 for that to happen and they will refund the rest back to me once the certificate is send through. Not once was I inform I will be charge for leaving. This company is a crook, cheat, and a joke. Had to call my bank to do a reversal on the charge. Getting rid of them is harder than getting rid of head lice. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM!

Got sick and had to go to the hospital. Had emergency surgery and thankfully recovered. Imagine my surprise when the hospital contacted me saying my insurance was suspended. Not sure how, it had been paid, confirmed, I had a policy number and everything. 4 months and many emails later I still have yet to see Medibank do it's job and cover me. The hospital is running out of patience and I am wondering why I even bothered getting insurance because its not like I have any.

I used this company for about 4 years. not even 1 time I got my right/benefits without any hassle. they always do the wrong thing first in case you do not know your rights or make you frustrated to give up!!!. EVERYTIME!!!!!!. I even ended up with ombudsman to get my refund. Staff is not aware of what actually they are doing. ask the same question to different people, the answer is different.

I had a terrible experience when I wanted to cancel my Medibank extra's membership. I called them and the person on the phone did not respect my decision as per cancelling my membership. He started ask me why I decided to do so (It was not totally his business though). I tried to be polite and reluctantly said that it is due to financial reasons (As it is totally a rip-off). He held me on the phone for 55 minutes giving me information on other plans ignoring my request. He manipulatively tried to convince me that I really need this service and I should keep it. When I said I really want to cancel that again, he started to talk to me about what are the benefits of membership and he forced me to choose another plan. It was very frustrating. Even though, I really wanted to cancel it I ended up to be on a slightly cheaper plan. Instead of doing his job, he made me feel guilty for cancelling it. Anyway, next day I went to the office and a lovely lady cancelled that for me. I will never go back to the Medibank extra though!!!!

Whilst coverage is becoming less and less. I seriously have to look elsewhere soon as I am certainly not impressed with their standards anymore. Any suggestions who is better yet covers dental, optical and remedial massage??

I cannot say that I am overly impressed with my recent contact with MBP. I need my MBP Tax Statement to complete my tax and to date I am still waiting for this. MBP cannot give me the details over the phone and tell me that I have to wait until 15 July 2019. I find this unsatisfactory considering all of my other organisations have provided this information at the beginning of July 2019. They certainly do not mind taking my premium payment every fortnight. I had a very long wait for an operator despite the fact that I had priority access. One wonders how long one would have had to wait without this priority access. MBP need to lift their game.

I got a visitor cover for my-in laws for three months where I paid the premium upfront for all three months as I was told they would wave off the waiting period. However my father In-law was hospitalized unfortunately during his stay where I got a huge bill from the hospital. Though the visitor cover says they cover private & public hospitalizations once you try to claim it Medi bank comes up with all sort of exceptions & they turn down paying it. Ironically the agent at Medi bank who promoted the cover for us ended up saying she wold not cover her own parents with the Medi bank visitor cover as it is very in-effective. Medi Bank provides the worst service where in the case of an emergency you will not be able to contact any of their agents as most of them work part time & no one knows what's happening around. Me & my wife regret our entire life getting an insurance with Medi Bank & the advice to anyone who anticipate to have a visitor cover at Medi bank is to stay away from MEDI BANK!

Have been with Medibank Private for 7 years. Going overseas for 2 months ( actually 3 days short) every year and got the suspension of the membership without problem and without checking, just assured me if any thing went wrong, come and paid back the two months suspension membership fees.
This year, she said the rule has changed and needed to check on my e-ticket of flights (never done before), so not allowed to have the suspension. For the sake of " got you this time to rip you off "!
Premium increased every years the highest, services lower every year. I had to pay extra $100 for admitting to Lakeview Private Hospital in Northwest Bella Vista. Medibank private doesn't have agreement with the hospital. For the benefit of the customers.... I wonder??
Then, on the 20th June, around 11:30 am, I went to the branch at Westfield Chatswood to ask other question. The branch was quiet, no customers at that time, one staff sitting in front of her desk, other one as well and chatting with other staff. This branch has a system that you have to answer question on a PC screen before to see any of the staff. Enter "your mobile number", not recognised, OMG, my mobile number is with them, tried other , not successful. The staff just looked at me and didn't bother to see if they can offer the help. Mind you, they are even the same ethnic group as me!
What could I expect from you, Medibank Private !!??

Any of you out there who is thinking of joining Medibank - please don’t!

I ‘ve been with this provider for less than 2 months and I’ve had the most frustrating time of my life dealing with their mis communications and irresponsibility!

When I joined I specifically asked for the premium payments to line up with my pay days and whoever I spoke to was deaf and charged my bank account leaving my account empty.

I escalated this issue and a team member from the escalations team called me and assured that everything was in order now and you know what it happened right again stuffing my saving account.

I called up again waiting on their busy line for nearly 30 minutes to speak to a team member who tried to console me with his humour and assuring me again that everything was resolved.

I had a dental appointment couple of days after this call and the Medibank card declined when I tried to make the payment embarrassing me infront of the clinical staff and other customers there.

I called up humiliated by this incident and spoke to a team member and this time I specifically asked for a supervisor as I was beginning to lose my hopes with my previous experiences. The call was escalated to a supervisor named Vincent who assured me that everything was resolved again for the 3rd time. He promised me that the money I had to pay at the Dental surgery will be refunded to me. I specifically asked for the amount to be credited to the bank account where the premium payments are debited from. This was assured to me and a cheque arrived this morning (more than a week after the call) and I took it to the bank to be told that I have to wait for 3 business days.

I called up again and spoke to a team member called Jasmine and I explained everything to her. She immediately changed my refund payment method to direct credit without even having to ask me the bank details as it was already there.

I told her that I spoke to Vincent and he didn’t action this despite being an escalated call and he being the supervisor. I specifically asked her for the call to be transferred to a higher up as I didn’t want to speak to the same escalation team.

And guess what she did? She consulted the issue with Vincent and transferred the call to him when I’m calling back to give a feedback about an I issue I encountered with him.

Vincent claims that he doesn’t recall my request and he couldn’t action it as there were no bank accounts. But what did Jasmine do then ? ! And no apologies or empathy offered! I mean why would he ! When that call was not him in the first place!

I ended up escalating his issue thorough him!

Is this the level of service and professionalism you stand by as an organisation ? Extremely disappointed!!!!

11 years of private health cover only to be rejected after surgery , 3 shoulder surgeries no cover , downright thieves waste of money and terrible service never again !! Take your cover elsewhere !!

Benefits paid to policy holders are being continually stripped while fees are increasing well above inflation.

We have been members for decades. Despite having the top hospital cover Medibank offers, my terminally ill wife recently received a bill of over $400 for pathology whilst in hospital.

She has spent a lot of time in hospital over the last 5 years and this is the first time this has happened.

Evidently this has occurred because Medibank doesn't have a 'no gap' arrangement with QML, one of the largest providers of pathology services in Queensland.

I'm told by QML that many insurers do have a no gap arrangement with them, so shop around if you think a product described as "top hospital cover" ought to include something as typical as pathology services. Maybe look for a good not for profit health insurance fund.

Privatisation of Medibank had been an absolute disaster for policy holders.

I had been waiting for an email from Medibank before going for a surgery. I called and was told that an email was sent yesterday. I requested to forward me that email. I was told it could take more than 1 day for an email to reach me and there was no provision to forward an email.

As a member, I can't even ask for an email to be forwarded back to me. By the way, the call to Medibank lasted 30 minutes.

I am going in for a surgery without any formal (email/letter) confirmation on my status - thank you Medibank!!!

My parents and in laws have been travelling to Australia often to visit their children and grand children every time they come in I cover them with an overseas visitors cover. This has been so since 2006...however till date not once has their claim been honoured due to some policy or the other....recently my parent left back on 1/5 and two weeks before they could leave I walked into one of the branches along with my dad to clim a gp visit.....We submitted the invoice and he filled out the form and signed everything and we were told the monies would be there in 2 weeks....As 3 weeks passed i went into another branch and there too i was confirmed there is no issue the money will be there is another 2 weeks. Its been more has 6 weeks today when I called i was told I cannot get the money as they need a consent from the policy holder to claim it...REALLY!!!!but guess what he is not here now so the suggestion I received is...I either ask them to call from overseas or as my 75 year old dad to download a form fill it scan it and email it back...or I do a conference call from my house(again really??) but you would not go outside the box to call him, or find the claim form he submitted before he left or just as good will honour the claim......cheats cheats cheats....stealing money from old retired couples is ethical and morally WRONG....

Joined Medibank with the 'New Families' package ahead of starting a family. Turns our that pregnancy related items such as antenatal/postnatal classes, TENS Machine purchase/hire and pregnancy compression garments aren't actually covered in the 'New Families' package.

In between joining and subsequently claiming, Medibank ceased offering the package and introduced 'Growing Families' which appears to be essentially the same price/package but includes all the above items.

Did Medibank advise 'New Families' members of the new (and better) 'Growing Families' package? Of course not. Advice from Medibank is that members should be continually reviewing 'our [Medibank's] current offerings via our website, advertise on social media, TV and other media sources'.

Becoming a member of Medibank requires a commitment to regularly interrogate Medibank's policies.

I would like to share my disheartened experience with everyone. I went with medibank as i believed them to be a trusted and helpful health care services, but that all changed when i was thrown in the deep dark end by them where i was refused to be covered for my mothers hospital expenses due to an accidental fall which resulted in a hospital admission and the conditions was not even pre-existing which was also mentioned in the doctors report. Now my mother being an overseas visitor its extremely heartbreaking and financially devastating when one takes a cover for the well being and security but then is refused of the services and denying what their policy also states quoted as "If you need to attend a Public hospital accident and emergency department, we’ll pay 100% of any ‘facility fee’ charged by the hospital for attending their accident and emergency department." Now the admission was due to a accidental fall and then due to the fall she needed to be admitted in the hospital. The doctors even mentioned that the heart condition is not pre-existing and it was clearly the result of accident. I am just an financially frustrated customer of medibank who wants to share the shocking treatment i received from a organization i believed in.

Just want to say a big thankyou to Tracy and Loretta at the Medibank Garden City store. Every time I go into the store for assistance they always have a smile on their faces and always exceed my expectation every time. Thankyou ladies :)

After over 20 years with Medibank Private I feel it is time for a change. Their staff are excellent at dealing with your calls. However the monthly charges keeping going up while the scope of the coverage is significantly reduced. Today I asked to drop my extras cover only to find that the previous level of hospital cover was not available. As expected the new hospital cover was some $20 per month more for a further reduced scope of cover. The time has come for me to find a new provider of health insurance.

I have been a member since 2013. First, as an OSHC to OHSC couple, and then Couple Working Visa (when my partner joined me here in AU). When we transferred from OHSC couple to Working Visa Cover last year, we clearly asked the agent at Medibank Westfield Chermside the different policies and she recommended that we applied for Basic Working Visa as it covers public/private hospital bills for pregnancy and others.

Now our predicament started when I got pregnant during the last quarter of 2018. We went to Medibank to check our cover for pregnancy as we are contemplating whether we were going to upgrade or change provider. The staff just gave us our policy cover and pretty enumerated what’s included and excluded. In December, when we received the list of fees we needed to pay items #16590 and #16522 (These two we had to pay beforehand but they are part of the delivery fee and hospital visits), I asked my husband went to Medibank Chermside to check if we’d be able to claim these items as we are going to pay them upfront. The staff he spoke to assured him that we could claim these items as they are legit MBS and they are included in our cover. He even showed the items on the screen to my husband. At that time, the purpose of us checking again was clearly clarify our cover so we could make necessary changes ie upgrade our cover or change provider, before we made the necessary payments. Having spoken to one of the staff, who told us that these items are claimable, we didn’t make any changes.

However, when we paid the first item 16590 at 28weeks (March 13, 2019) and tried to claim it, we received an email stating it was excluded in our cover. I called up Medibank to check and I explained the case, the agent I spoke to over the phone said that he had verified with the manager that these items we could claim after I gave birth as an in-patient.

I have relayed this information to the hospital and they told me that #16590 is a legit MBS and I should be able to claim it right away since it was part of my delivery. I went and asked Medibank about it again and they said it should be in-patient. In our cover, it states “Your cover includes benefits toward medical services provided by a doctor that are listed in Australian Government Medicare Benefit Schedule”. These items are included in MBS. Pregnant women with Medicare are paid when they claim these items.

Next was #16522. Before we paid this, we called Medibank again to clarify our cover (April 16). The agent advised my husband that 16522 is claimable as per our cover because it’s a delivery fee and hospital visit. My husband reiterated that we’d be paying the item at 36weeks (in two weeks time) and again, the agent said it is claimable as per our cover and not worry about it. He also said to wait for Medibank’s agent to call us within 5-10 business day to resolve our first complaint about item #16590.

Time had passed and we did not receive any call. Since we were due to pay item 16522, we paid the fee and submitted a claim as per advised by the Medibank agent my husband talked to. In the receipt we submitted to Medibank for the claim, it was clearly stated in-patient, but then last Friday we received an update about it and they said it was not included in our cover. How come it was excluded? Again, in our cover it states that our policy covers benefits toward medical services provided by a doctor that are listed in Australian Government Medicare Benefit Schedule and it is included in MBS.

I called Medibank again on Friday, this time I was really upset for getting several answers and information which are inconsistent and misleading, and extremely poor customer service. I was able to talk to a manager and he said he was going to refer the case to a complaint officer. So, that means after more than weeks of waiting ie. from lodging our first complaint to lodging our second one, nothing has been done. He told me to wait for another 3 business days because they are going to review the calls we have made. This is what really infuriates me! Clearly, they just sat on the case tossing us around from one staff to another who are giving us wrong, inconsistent and misleading information.

If we were given definite and clear information the first time we visited Medibank Chermside or the first time we called Medibank, we would not waste our time visiting/calling Medibank and lodging a complaint one after another! We could have done something before we even paid for those two items.

But Medibank staff led us on! From the 3 staff we had spoken to (Medibank Chermside and the agents on the phone), each of them gave us different answers but assured us we could claim 1 or 2 items after reviewing our policy cover and we have proofs for that.

These incidents only manifest how incompetent Medibank staff are. And the cover was deceitful. Even if you clarify with staff, you will get either wrong information or misleading answers as they themselves are not knowledgeable about the policies they are selling to their poor costumers. So, do not fall for it. Find another health insurance provider and compare.

As to our case, we will escalate it to Private Health Insurance Ombudsman if not resolve this week. I am now on my late third trimester and this on-going issue with Medibank is adding so much stress to me and my pregnancy.

As members, we have done our part. We have diligently visited the physical shop (despite my being heavily pregnant) and called Medibank call centre to check and clarify our cover SEVERAL TIMES but then this is what we got. That’s not the way you treat clients who have been members for years. Your whole staff are in dire need of training!

Giving Medibank one star is still generous.