A feud between 25 health insurers and the operator of two ACT private hospitals that could have left thousands of Canberra's private patients with higher out-of-pocket expenses has reached a temporary resolution.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Public and private hospital operator Calvary – which runs Calvary Private in Bruce and Calvary John James in Deakin – was due to tear up its contract with the industry body representing the funds the Australian Health Service Alliance from November 20.
But just one week out Calvary has "suspended" the contract termination "to allow the issues in dispute to be further worked through and possibly resolved, in the interests of patients, healthcare practitioners and staff", according to a statements from both organisations.
The move was expected to affect up to 2 million customers nationally and came after Calvary and AHSA failed to reach an agreement over the rates the health insurers pay hospitals for services provided to their members.
It prompted the alliance to urge Canberra doctors to take their patients to other hospitals with fears patients from AHSA member funds would be charged a financial gap when admitted to Calvary hospitals.
"Both Calvary and AHSA are committed to resolving these issues within the next few weeks," statements from both organisations said.
"This means that admitting patients will be covered in the normal way including patients' choice of doctor and hospital until further notice."
AHSA claims the Calvary group demanded a 6 per cent increase in the rates for member services, but the hospital operator says the alliance's rates were 11 per cent below the national average.
The private health insurance funds involved are: ACA Health Benefits Fund Limited, Australian Unity Health Limited, CBHS Health Fund Limited, CUA Health Limited, Defence Health Limited, The Doctor's Health Fund Limited, GMHBA Limited, Grand United Corporate Health Limited, Health Care Insurance Limited (HCI), Health Insurance Fund of Australia Limited (HIF), HealthGuard Health Benefits Limited, Health Partners Limited, health.com.au Pty Limited, Navy Health Limited, National Health Benefits Australia Pty Limited (onemedifund), Peoplecare Health Insurance, Phoenix Health Fund Limited, Police Health, Queensland Country Health Fund Ltd, Reserve Bank Health Society Ltd, Railway and Transport Health Fund Ltd (RT Health), Teachers Federation Health Fund Ltd, Queensland Teachers' Union Health Fund Limited, Transport Health Pty Ltd and Westfund.
