nib health insurance

Yes, you’re covered for emergency ambulance services on all nib extras and hospital products. You can also choose to take out ambulance-only cover. With nib ambulance cover, you’ll be covered for 100% of the ambulance service fee for emergency ambulance transport to hospital provided by a State or Territory government service. Ambulance cover is not available to members covered by their State ambulance scheme. A one-day waiting period applies.

Yes, as with all Australian health funds, nib will cover you for pre-existing conditions for treatment in hospital. However, you may need to serve a 12-month waiting period for treatment relating to your pre-existing condition.

A pre-existing condition won’t affect your cover for extras services.

Yes, the waiting periods are standard across all health funds for hospital cover. These are 12 months for pregnancy and birth and pre-existing conditions (excluding rehabilitation, psychiatric and palliative care), and 2 months for everything else.

For nib extras cover, the waiting periods are typically between 2 and 12 months, except for hearing aids which have a 36-month waiting period. Longer waiting periods are typically reserved for more expensive services that are claimed less often. This prevents people from signing up, claiming on a high-value product and cancelling their cover, which would raise premiums for everyone else.

When you’re treated in hospital as a private patient for a service covered by your policy, the hospital will send the bill straight to nib, who will settle your account and reach out to you to pay any excess or out-of-pocket expenses.

For extras services, you can simply scan your nib membership card at your provider’s HICAPS machine or claim through their easy-to-use mobile app. Alternatively, you can pay upfront, fill out a claims form and send it to nib, who will reimburse you for your extras benefit.

You can choose to pay your nib health insurance premiums weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly. Nib offers a range of payment options, including BPAY credit or debit card, mail or direct debit.

When you pay by direct debit, you can receive a 4% discount (not applicable for ambulance or overseas cover). While there’s no discount for paying annually, you can pay your premiums up to 13 months in advance, which could save you money by locking in a lower rate before the annual rate rise.

Yes, with nib hospital cover, you’ll typically be required to pay an excess on the first hospital admission of the calendar year, although terms may vary between policies. You’ll need to pay this excess before receiving any treatment. Some hospital products will waive the excess for child dependants.

On select nib hospital insurance policies, you can elect to pay a higher excess in exchange for a lower premium or vice versa. This might be a good idea if you’re getting cover for the unexpected and don’t think you’ll be admitted to the hospital any time soon.

To cancel your nib health insurance policy, simply give them a call and their friendly customer service team will walk you through the cancellation process. Alternatively, you could suspend your cover for a set period instead of cancelling due to financial hardship or international travel.