Medibank Health Insurance

My wife and myself have been Medibank members since 1984. This means little of course as Medibank, similar to the big banks, treats everybody in the same manner. I have been booked in for hip replacemnet surgery as part of the Medibank No-Gap policy. I had a consultation with my surgeon only last Friday and left with a range of documents,… Read more

including an invoice for $830.00 which I am told is to cover his assistants costs. For reasons unknown to me the surgeon prefers to use the services of a scrub nurse. (SN) As the SN does not have a porvider number neither Medicare of Medibank will make this payment. Whilst this situation is not of Medibank's making it does bring home the fact that No-Gap does not neccesarily mean what it says. I seem to be a pawn caught up in the complex medical system that prevails in Australia. It seems that my only option is to pay the $830.00, or go back to my GP and start the process again. If I had been aware of this SN situation then I would never have elected to see this particular surgeon. The lesson seeems to be that you MUST ask all of these questions before your initial consultation. As it is I feel totally let down by the system. My hip is not in great shape and I require surgery ASAP. It looks like pay up and shut up is the only option.

EVER TRIED TO TALK (=SPEAK IN WORDS) WITH MEDIBANK private? I tried 3 media (phone, screen and app) to try to make a claim for the SERVICE "Bone Mineral densitometry". All the AI robots failed and just looked blank and the telephone voices kept passing me around because they didn't comprehend. I mean there are a lot of ageing people with… Read more

bone density problems.. Surely , a medical insurance company has heard of it? Do they refund a claim for that or NOT? aaaHHH DA!

Not the AI robots on the Medibank private app site or the web site. They therefore have not trained their HUMAN underlings how to handle such conversations as you wile-away an hour listening to their Toadyverts telling you to talk to a robot. I might as well talk to my Triffid mate here .

Trying to get access to some basic information about an upcoming procedure and they just refuse to help me understand the financial implications. I made it clear multiple times I still didn’t understand and no help was given. Wait times on the app were 50mins to get no resolution. Phone wasn’t much better. As a consumer it feels like you don’t really have a choice it’s pretty rough. Show details

My brother became terminally ill so my husband and I took over his care. I personally contacted all the relevant organisations he was involved with, told them his new address (we moved him closer so he was near us) and with each one he verbally… Read more

identified himself then gave permission for me to speak on his behalf, long term, in case I needed to ring on his behalf.

I rang whilst he was in the hospital one day to tell them he had a new bank account for his direct debits to come out off. To my amazement the phone options keep asking for card numbers etc on recording but don't have an option to speak to an actual person. After hours on hold the phone was suddenly answered! I told the rep what was going on, that my I was sitting by my brothers bedside and could put him on to answer any security checks so I could speak. She refused to speak to him because "he wasn't the person who made the call."

I tried to explain he was 70 and quite ill but she wouldn't continue the call. They had not changed his address as previously asked, or added me to be able to speak about the account. We ended up putting the app on his phone to change his address and direct debit details. But they wouldn't speak to me. The woman took my details and promised a call back. I'm still waiting.

Fast forward a few weeks. My brothers health deteriorated even more. I tried for weeks to get through to let them know he wanted to cancel the policy. They refused to speak to him, or me. They did manage to take out a month's policy the day before he passed though, that they made sure off. I'm sitting here now waiting for his death certificate to arrive before another months policy gets taken out of his account.

My brother has passed now Medibank. You've managed to take one month's worth of your blood money. Are you going to go for two or will somebody finally judge me worthy of speaking to? He can't come to the phone anymore, it's just me crying and trying to get your mega company to honour the promise of a call back.

I have been with Medibank’s since the the 80’s and always find them extremely helpful and I have piece of mind that I will be taken care of. I went to the Adelaide city store and was assisted by Dimi Trantopoutos, she was fantastic! She helped to do… Read more ·  1

a claim online but her understanding and knowledge is brilliant. At all times very respectful and easy to talk to. An asset to the business!

Terrible Treatment unacceptable behaviour !! – If I could have given no stars I would have. Beware of the inpatient outpatient treatment. Make sure Medibank send the Transfer Certificate to your new fund or you will be left in emergency having vital surgery delayed. They have 14 days to provide this. Will never take insurance with Medibank again ! Show details

Excellent customer support – issue resolved quickly! I initially had an issue with my Medibank login and was quite frustrated. However, after calling their customer support team, everything was resolved quickly and professionally. I was connected to a representative straight away with no waiting time, and they were very helpful and efficient in… Read more ·  1

sorting everything out.

Really happy with how the issue was handled over the phone. Thank you, Medibank, for the excellent support!

I am a Medibank member with both hospital and extras cover. I joined in 1982 and I am generally happy with the cover I receive, however, one extras item which I claim for prosthetic repair and maintenance has me confused. Medibank recognise three different years. * Calendar year for extras Medibank extras annual limits reset on January 1 each… Read more ·  1

year. Unused limits do not carry over to the next calendar year. * Membership year In my case it renews mid February * Prosthetics Medibank only allow this item to be claimed once per year. Although claimed under Extras, the maintenance and repair of prosthetics renew on the anniversary of the previous years claim and does not renew on January 1st. If a claim is made, it must not be less than "exactly" one year from the previous claim. One day early and the claim is refused.

In my case there is only one person in South Australia that provides this service. He only works 2 days each week and also services regional areas. Often it is not possible to get an appointment to suit Medibank requirements. The response is "That's the rules"

Update: I went to the Medibank office at Tea Tree Plaza and am pleased to say my claim has been reassessed and will now be paid. Many thanks to Natalie who provided a clear explanation of why my claim was refused initially. People like Natalie are a large reason I have remained with Medibank for 44 years. I am now completely happy to remain at Medibank for the foreseeable future.

I joined Medibank about a year ago and I claimed on my extras only so far , fortunately my experience of claiming was seamless. Secondly whenever I need help for anything a customer service officer called Hala Wasef always welcomes me with due respect and tries her best to help me. I wish all customer service officers follow Hala’s foot steps. Show details ·  1

I moved to another health fund after extreme dissatisfaction with the inability to communicate with Medibank. I advised them to cancel my direct debit and advised them of the name of my new heath fund. Despite this they deducted over $5000 via direct debit resulting in my account being overdrawn and now facing penalty from my bank. I have made… Read more

multiple attempts to contact medibank requesting they return my money and provide compensation. All communications were ignored! Mt money has not been returned. I have now had to make an Obudsman complaint to retrieve my money. Medibank cannot be trusted and the ability to communicate with them is virtually non existent. Medibank is engaging in dishonest and questionable practices and should be avoided by all. Day 2. Apology sent by robot 12 hours after advising me they would respond in 16 minutes. Still no refund of the $5000. I plan to update this review daily until my refund is received. Be warned, if you want a responsive professional health insurance fund look elsewhere. Day 3, no refund or phone call received. Medibank was notified 2 weeks prior to direct debit due date, they were also advised of name of new fund. Attempted explanation provided in response is not valid in this case. Day 4 still no refund and no phone call received. Medibanks action to direct debit my account after I advised them not to proceed with the direct debit have caused me significant financial hardship. Care factor - zero!

Ironically it will be more pleasurable to pull your teeth out one by one than to get through to Medibank phone service. The auto answering robot woman does not understand a word. She goes into a loop where she asks a question but dont give time to respond and immediately tell you to use different words. That instruction worked perfectly because I… Read more

started to use a lot of very different words. Best get loaded up on blood pressure meds before starting a call.

Medibank should win the award for worst private health insurer in Australia. Absolutely appalling customer service. High fees for very little. Zero care factor for the people who buy their cover. And a sense of entrapment. NEVER BUY MEDIBANK HEALTH COVER. Show details

We were with Medibank for more than 30 years. They do not appreciate loyalty so I decided to switch providers. Finally, after a big circle and taking advantage of free weeks offers, I came back to Medibank. They messed up my first claim and my second one was again lower than what it should have been. Their customer service had gotten worse. I went… Read more

into Westfield Burwood branch and it was staffed by migrants who have not been trained well. They have not been educated about our local culture, that the first thing is to be courteous and make your customer feel welcomed. This middle aged woman did not even bother to look at my papers when I told her that I felt my rebate should have been more. I walked out feeling really disappointed and never again will I go back to Medibank once my free weeks are over. They deserve Zero stars.

Their customer service is poor. Specifically being able to get through and talk with someone if enquiring about anything. It is usually a very long wait, or not able to get through at all. Also with the after hours agents being someone offshore they don't seem to have a clue or just cut you off so they don't have to help you. Show details

Rebates are good, if the rebates were not good we would have left years ago, the customer service is horrible. They genuinely cannot complete a pharmacy claim if their lives depended on it, if you post off they disappear and are never processed, heard from or seen again. If you contact chat be prepared for a mind numbing experience where they… Read more

do not listen and where the conversation is dragged out over the span of hours with none of the information you provide listened to and all responses about 30 to 40 minutes in the making.

If you go in person to try to avoid all of this someone will stand over you demanding that you leave it with them, will promise to submit themselves, advise once claimed, keep in touch with head office to ensure complete and follow-up but in actual fact just take your paperwork and nothing more.

If you don't need healthcare consistently where the rebates are a necessity, do yourself a favour and go elsewhere... medibank is genuinely horrendous.

The online Medibank Private service is not a service to customers. My husband and I waited, filled in odd information and then had to revisit site again. All just to add a new phone number so we could log in on line. The site is user unfriendly, real people on line say too many others waiting, not enough service, Very poor. Show details

Hopefully this is an informative review about coverage with Medibank Private (MP). No complaints about the doctor, hospital or anaesthetist. I am 60yo (been with MP for 35 years) and had a necessary major operation in a good private hospital in Melbourne. I received a letter of consent from the anaesthetist on 28 July and my operation was on 3… Read more

August. It was too late to enquire about the estimated fees and it does not matter anyway because the surgeon chooses the anaesthetist. I paid the fee of $2,500 before the operation and had already absorbed the $500 gap through my premiums. I just received my Medibank Private statement and received a $178 rebate from MP for the anaesthetist. I will receive a few hundred dollars as rebate from Medicare. High skilled anaesthetists at good hospitals do not 'opt in' to the private healthcare scheme because they are not able to charge the fee that they are (frankly) entitled to. The private healthcare scheme has not kept up with the cost of doing business and is a disgrace. Put simply, I was $1,900 out of pocket for the anaesthetist, an expense that was not budgeted for. Just have to keep working to pay the bills.

Update: After multiple follow-ups and a formal complaint, the $90 HICAPS claim has now finally been reversed. I’m glad the issue has been resolved, although the process took several weeks and required repeated escalation. Review Incompetent online customer service team. A false claim on my private insurance. I’ve been chasing up my refund for… Read more

three weeks, but they keep procrastinating and giving me different versions of the story every time I call, completely wasting my time. They keep telling me it’s been processed, yet I still haven’t received my HICAPS refund after three weeks.

My experience with Medibank has been extremely disappointing. I was incorrectly charged due to what appears to be a system error, and despite multiple follow-ups, I struggled to get a clear update or resolution. The burden of chasing the issue fell entirely on me, while Medibank showed little urgency in correcting its own mistake. The premiums… Read more

are already higher than many competing providers, so I expected a much higher standard of customer service. Unfortunately, interactions with the customer support team, including the Platinum team, felt unhelpful and uninterested. Rather than actively assisting, it often seemed as though they were simply going through the motions of the conversation.

When you’re paying premium prices, you expect accountability, responsiveness, and customer care. Based on my experience, those expectations were not met. After weeks of follow-ups, inconsistent information, and no proactive communication, I would not recommend Medibank to others.

After being a member for 30 years I tried to suspend my membership due hardship which they allow. They have a whole page of fine print. Nowhere does it say for the category I applied for there is a limit to how long but they wrote back saying “ great here is your three month max suspension”. Nowhere is that stated. I then want to cancel,… Read more

naturally although everything is online you can’t do that online or via chat. You must talk to them so they can try to trick you to stay.

They sent me 2 or 3 private chats here, never answering the question but wanting my name etc. I kept asking politely, the issue is on your form, can you confirm. Have you read it I asked eventually. Silence.

Dishonest and deceptive.

Terrible customer service. Unable to get answers on chat although I have asked to speak to agent I am not getting clear answers nor will the agent give me their name. Phone wait times over 1 hour. I regret transferring to this organisation and will transfer back. Unable to find out in APP if covered for a procedure but have to phone for a quote which means an excessive wait time with terrible music and messages. Show details

Hopeless. Cancelled policy and they continued to take money. Sent me a cheque that took weeks to come, then said they would cancel it and I asked for it to be sent back to my payment method and was told they could not refund to a debit card, only to follow up cause it hadn’t hit my bank account weeks later, to be told it wasn’t processed and they… Read more

could cancel cheque but could only refund to original payment method, which they said they couldn’t do prior. Ended up telling them, I’ll just find time somehow to deposit cheque. 2 hours wasted

I was with Medibank’s for 20 yrs. Did not make too many claims, but my claims were dealt with fairly. I do travel overseas often and under Medibank travel insurance could not get travel insurance for more than 60 days. On the other hand I could not suspend my policy for less than 60 days. AHM and Bupa allows you to suspend for shorter periods so I had no choice but to switch. Show details

My husband FB received an email from Medibank this morning denying his claim for a private ED visit earlier this month. He was transferred from ED to hospital for treatment hence it is reimbursable by Medibank. FB rang Medibank and after 5 or so… Read more

minutes on hold was transferred to a woman. FB relayed the situation. After leaving hospital FB rang Medibank and learned to file a claim he must submit the ED invoice along with a statement from Medicare showing how much Medicare had paid. FB did that and filed the claim. Medibank rep then put FB on hold. When she got back, she said that he had been reimbursed already. FB said that he had received no payment from Medibank for the last month. After some back and forth. the rep insisted that FB email her his bank statement! FB refused as that invades his privacy. More discussion then again on hold. Then FB asked her when it was paid as he had only filed the claim last week. The rep said 13 months ago. She was looking at 2025 records! That was a waste of half an hour. There was more discussion and more holding and she said the claim was denied because it was not from the hospital. The ED is a different organisation. The rep said that is the claims process so she recommended he go in person. FB refused as it's a one hour drive to the nearest Medibank office. Then the rep advised FB to submit his claim by post and ended the call. It was 1 hour. The rep never explained how Medibank would handle the claim different by post than via internet. FB is worn out today but plans to call Medibank tomorrow and hope a different rep is a little sharper. Too bad Medibank doesn't reimburse for wasted time.