On this page:
- Who is Health Insurance Fund of Australia?
- Does HIF get many complaints from members?
- How good is HIF's gap cover?
- How many hospital agreements does HIF have in each state?
- Does HIF offer any discounts?
- Does HIF offer ambulance cover?
- Does HIF offer family policies that cover adult children?
- Does HIF let you claim online or in-app?
Who is Health Insurance Fund of Australia?
The nonprofit Health Insurance Fund of Australia, or HIF, was founded in WA in 1954 and has about 120,000 members. It's also Australia's first certified carbon-neutral health fund. It's part of Members Health, an alliance of nonprofit and mutual health funds.
Phone: 1300 13 40 60
Website: hif.com.au
Does HIF get many complaints from members?
HIF has a Low complaints rating.
When we score policies we give each fund a complaints rating, based on the number of complaints and serious disputes the Ombudsman deals with. We take into account the size of the fund, so big funds don't get automatically penalised for having more complaints. The ratings are Low, Medium and High. A Low rating is better than a High rating – it means the fund has fewer complaints and fewer serious disputes for its size.
How good is HIF's gap cover?
A medical gap is the difference between Medicare's recommended fee and what your doctor actually charges for a treatment or service.
Health funds have agreements with particular doctors and hospitals to cover all of the gap, which are called 'no gap agreements', or part of that gap, which are called 'known gap agreements' (these will have lower out-of-pocket costs, usually less than $500).
Our graphic below displays the CHOICE gap rating, which takes into account the percentage of services where members either paid no gap or a known gap, compared to the state average.
Rating scale
- Well above average
- Above average
- Average
- Below average
- Well below average
How many hospital agreements does HIF have in each state?
The benefit amount your fund pays you for hospital services depends not only on the type of cover you buy, but also whether your fund has an agreement with the hospital where you're treated.
The table below shows how many hospital agreements HIF has in your state compared to the fund with the highest number (the industry maximum). Note that public hospitals don't have agreements with specific funds and are generally treated as though they're agreement hospitals.
Does HIF offer any discounts?
Discount for direct debit: None
Discount for annual prepay: 4%
Youth discounts: None.
Does HIF offer ambulance cover?
All HIF extras and combined policies have emergency ambulance (road ambulance only).
Cover is capped for Vital Options at:
- 50% of fee up to an overall policy annual limit
- one service per person / two per policy a year.
A co-payment of $50 per service applies to non-emergency call-outs and transportation.
Does HIF offer family policies that cover adult children?
- Adult children are covered on family policies for free until they turn 21.
- Full-time students are covered on family policies for free until they turn 31.
Does HIF let you claim online or in-app?
Up to $700 a day of extras benefits can be claimed via email or the fund's app (iOS and Android).
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
