Australia:Private hospitals body urges health insurers to return unused premiums to policyholders

Some private health insurers are returning unused premiums to policyholders because of a reduction in elective surgery cases during the COVID-19 pandemic period, according to the Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA).

HBF in Western Australia has recognised returning unused funds to members was “the right thing to do” and returned A$40m ($31m) to policyholders, while AIA is providing members with an average rebate of around A$200 each.

However, other health insurance funds have announced that they were holding onto the unused premiums. To this, APHA CEO Michael Roff said, “Funds have been saying they need to hold on to these payments because of the ‘inevitable’ catch up in elective surgeries. But, this is not happening at anywhere near the rate they are suggesting. Instead, they should return the fees paid to their members and stop hoarding cash on a pretence.”

He also said, “So there are more funds making money out of COVID-19 than not. We also know that activity levels in private hospitals were down 6.9% in 2020 compared to 2019, so the rush to elective surgery has not occurred. There is no reason why all health funds can’t declare how much they will return to members.”

APHA is the largest peak industry body representing the private hospital and day surgery sector. The private hospital sector treats 4.6m patients a year.

Source: Asia insurance review