Big health insurance funds should follow HBF's lead

Thursday, 4 March 2021

Big health insurance funds should follow HBF's lead
The Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) has welcomed the move by private health insurer
HBF to repay members fees after accruing excess funds due to COVID-19 and is urging the big players to
do the same.

Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) CEO Michael Roff said HBF's move was 'the right thing to
do', but noted it was restricted to the Western Australian-based insurer.

"This is exactly what health insurers should be doing – in fact we called for this very thing last week. The
latest Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) data report showed there was $1.8 billion sitting in
insurers' bank accounts as deferred claims liability, if those funds are not used to address the backlog of
elective surgery, then they should be returned to members.

"HBF is in a position to return $40 million to policyholders, imagine what the large insurers are holding
back? For example, Medibank reported last week that they are holding $310 million in deferred claims," he
said.

On a national level, activity in private hospitals was down 6.9 percent in 2020 compared to 2019.

"This is not as bad as anticipated when elective surgery restrictions were first imposed, so it is likely all
health funds are holding an excess of deferred claims liabilities.

"The latest data shows that in the six months to December 2020, private hospital activity bounced back to
more normal levels, so there is no reason why all health funds can't declare how much they will return to
members."
Mr Roff said it was pleasing to see at least one health insurer honouring its promise to members and he
looks forward to hearing similar announcements from the big health insurance organisations.

"Australians have been hit hard by the pandemic and many will be facing a cut to JobKeeper at the end of
this month. If private health insurers are holding on to money that could help those people out, they should
do the right thing and follow HBF's great example," he said.

-ENDSMedia contact: Frith Rayner, Director Communications and Marketing, 0413 971 999

The Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) is the largest peak industry body representing the private hospital and day
surgery sector. The private hospital sector treats 4.6 million patients a year, including treatment of more than a third of
chemotherapy, about 60 percent of all surgery, 60 percent of all elective musculoskeletal surgery.

Level 3 /11 National Circ, Barton ACT 2600. PO Box 4502, Kingston ACT 2604. [T] 02 6273 9000 [F] 02 6273 7000
[E] [W] www.apha.org.au [FB] ValuingPrivateHospitals [Twitter] @priv8hospitals
ABN 82 008 623 809

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