HBF
HBF has been a strong feature in Western Australia since 1941, starting in Perth and growing to dominate Western Australia almost exclusively.
In the 1970s, HBF reached out to the Eastern states, where it has had a modest profile for most of its life, but the modern era of digital technology has helped its business strategy bloom.
HBF has grasped web and phone app tech and is now making its presence known as a strong contender in the insurance market without needing much in the way of a costly physical presence in the big cities.
To this day HBF remains a not-for-profit company, now with a million members.
Not-for-profit: What does that mean?
HBF does not have an owner nor shareholders who would live off company profits.
Therefore, the aim of HBF is not to make ever-greater profits, and instead focuses on their stated priority of greater service to customers.
Hospital Affiliations
With their greater network of connections in the West, West Australian members enjoy a healthy ratio of hospital agreements, with hospitals offering no-gap or known-gap medical services, whereas the amount in the rest of Australia remains average.
That is, not so much presence in the East.
HBF has recorded some of the lowest complaints-to-member ratios, which is a good thing, but many of the complaints are about a lack of an actual office, which is more of a factor in the Eastern states.
Since to date there are still more members in the West, this might skew the data favourably away from those problems.
In short: Great if you’re in Western Australia, might not be so great if you are not. Depends on how you like your service.
Key benefits
Most of all it is affordable health cover. The upper Gold level and the lower Basic levels are cost effective hospital covers, and some of the extras kick in early, especially for optical or aural needs; eye checks, ear checks, treatments, glasses and hearing aids.
Note that ALL levels of cover include ambulance, but the only level that covers pregnancy and birth is Gold Hospital cover.
Levels of Hospital Cover:
Keep in mind that not all covers are the same, so they are not all directly comparable. Each insurance group have their strengths and weaknesses in terms of service, and each offer slightly different degrees of cover in different areas.
It is up to you to find out which one does what you need better. You might want better gap cover, or you might be happy to save more per week, and spend more at the counter should you need treatment.
At least the industry is regulated to offer Basic, Bronze, Silver and Gold levels so that WHAT is covered is more or less the same, so you really only have to look at HOW WELL they cover them. So let’s take a look:
Basic Hospital Plus
Budget young-people’s accident hospital cover plan – good value for money if that’s all you need, includes ambulance, joint reconstruction, gynaecology and dental surgery.
Premiums for a single person under 50, this comes in at $17.15 per week, compared to Bupa’s $18.43 and Medibank’s $20.63.
Bronze Hospital Plus
Still for young and healthy people, this level includes general surprise sicknesses of Ear, Nose and Throat, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and Cancer treatments.
Premiums on this plan are currently $20.43 per week, which exactly matches Bupa’s Bronze Plus cover, and a couple of dollars cheaper than Medibank’s Bronze.
On Silver and Gold:
Silver cover anywhere is not great general cover. It is simply a half-way step to Gold, and not worth the price unless you know exactly what you want and are prepared to tailor your hospital policy to exactly that.
That’s what Silver is there for – sculpting your cover to exactly match your needs.
Of course, you could let your No Worries team know what you want, and let us handle the business of tailor-making the best policy for you. That’s what we do.
Otherwise, if you want a good general hospital cover, then you may as well just head straight up to Gold, which turns out to be cheaper anyway, and for better well-rounded cover.
Silver Hospital
Silver Hospital covers Heart and Vascular System issues, Podiatric (foot) surgery, insulin pumps and the implantation of Hearing Devices.
Premiums are $29.67 per week which matches Medibank, compared to Bupa which is $25.33 for their Silver Hospital Essential.
Silver Hospital Plus
As per regular Silver, but with Rehabilitation, Cataract treatment and Joint Replacements.
$36.75 per week, which is in the same dollar range as Bupa’s Silver Plus Advanced Hospital. Medibank has so many Silver packages that it becomes hard to compare.
Gold Hospital
Skip straight to this one if you intend on starting a family soon. As well as the cover for all areas mentioned so far, it appears to be tailor-made for mothers. It includes Assisted Reproductive Services, Pregnancy and Birth, Weight Loss Surgery and Kidney Dialysis.
HBF’s Gold Hospital comes in at $40.75 per week, compared to Medibank at $43.18 and Bupa at $43.84.
So generally…
HBF’s Basic, Bronze and Gold Hospital tiers are in-step with Bupa for price, and ahead of Medibank.
The two big differences are:
- The number of hospitals connected in your area – HBF are well-covered in the West, but with less representation in the East,
- The range of options available. Medibank offers more than a dozen standard options, and would probably tailor it even more for you if you asked, whereas HBF likes to keep it straightforward.
The team at No Worries can help you avoid hours of research by doing all the heavy lifting for you.
Extras
The extras packages you can choose are generally suited according to the age of the member.
Basic Extras include Vision Aids (glasses and contact lenses), Osteo, Chiro, Physio, Dental and ‘Healthy Living’, which means all the vaccinations, health checks, exercise programs, weight management and quitting smoking programs to get you living healthier.
Flex 50
The Flex packages reflect the amount you get back, so Flex 50 means you’ll get 50% back on a range of medical services.
Except preventative dental. For members with this as an option, you get back 75%, and some pharmaceuticals are 100% covered. Apart from that, it’s all 50%.
The upper annual limit on optical on the Flex 50 is $200, on natural therapies $200, and the upper limit for every service combined is $800 per year.
The services covered can be optical, dental and natural, as mentioned, and chiro, exercise physiology, healthy living programs (vaccinations, one health check, heath and weight, and quit smoking services), osteopathy, physiotherapy, nutrition and psychology.
Emergency ambulance is covered outside of this limit.
Flex 60
Flex 60 is the same as the Flex 50, only it is for 60% coverage, a max of $1000 across the services, and optical is now $220 max per year.
Complete 60
The same as Flex 60: 60% back, but with the following limits:
Preventative Dental: No limit
Restorative Dental and major dental: $800 combined total
Therapies (Chiro, Osteo, Physio, Podiatry, Dietetics, Eyes, Occupational therapy, psychology, speech therapy): $500 total combined
Appliances, prostheses, aids, healthy living and natural therapies: $350 total combined.
Top 70
70% back, as you’d expect, but the allowances are specific, not flexible to be allocated across anything needed.
No limit on preventative dental, but between $1000 on dental repair for a three-year membership, $1250 for a four-year member, and $1500 for longer than that.
Upper limits of each category:
Dietetics and Nutrition: $400
Exercise physiology: $600 (including physiotherapy)
Eye therapy: $400
Healthy living: $350
Hearing Aids: $700
Natural Therapies: $300
Occupational Therapy: $400
Optical: $275
Osteopathy: $400
Approved Pharmaceuticals: $400
Podiatry: $400
Psychology: $500
Speech Therapy: $400
Ambulance insurance
Emergency ambulance – by road (not water or air), both for on-site attention and transport to an emergency department for treatment – is covered in most HBF policies as Hospital Cover. It is available as an option on Select policies for $1.45 per week.
The availability for ambulance is different in each state:
Tasmania: Emergency ambulance is not available on HBF for Tasmanian residents, as ambulance is covered by Medicare while in Tasmania.
Queensland: Emergency ambulance is not available on HBF for Queensland residents, as ambulance is covered by Medicare for Queensland residents throughout Australia.
NSW / ACT: The service in NSW is covered, though the hospital needs to know your policy details, so return their bill with your policy information and they will handle it.
For all other states: When you receive your bill, send it along to us and we’ll take care of it.
Non-emergency ambulance is not covered in the usual Hospital Cover policy, but some policies offer Ambulance Care.
Ambulance Care is a policy add-on which allows you to book a non-emergency ambulance for either an on-site visit, or to transport you to hospital in an HBF-approved, non-emergency road ambulance.
Additional Member Benefits.
HBF has built up a number of affiliates, typically in the health and fitness sector. Membership with HBF will earn you 10-15% off gym memberships, eye care, healthy grocery delivery, movies and theme park attractions across Australia – for your better mental health.
How to switch to HBF
HBF say that you can switch ‘Online in minutes’ and that all you have to do is to provide your old policy details, and they will do the rest with a 30-day cooling off period.
In doing so, for any service you were not previously covered, there are often waiting periods. These are waived if your old policy included the same cover.
Waiting periods are conditions to prevent people from joining an insurance provider with pre-existing medical requirements. It protects the provider and the other members from having to pay for someone who makes a claim in bad faith rather than as a preventative measure, as insurance is meant to be.
Accidents are covered almost immediately of course – after only one day’s wait.
Rehabilitation, Palliative Care, Psychiatric Care and most other services come in after two months.
Pre-existing conditions, Pregnancy and Birth, Major Dental, Orthodontics and Foot Orthoses take 12 months of waiting period.
Urgent Ambulance comes in after 7 days, and non-urgent ambulance (on the Ambulance Care option) is active after 30 days.
At No Worries, we waive off any waiting periods you have already served so that you can get covered instantly.
HBF’s claims process
Within Western Australia, there are plenty of claims and assistance options – physical buildings aplenty with people ready to see you or take your call.
For the other states, HBF have embraced new technology, with both an online claim service and a downloadable phone app.
Of course, the phone and old-school mail systems are still options.
When it comes to extras claims, HBF have also stepped up with the Point-of-Sale claim system HICAPS, so you can swipe your membership card as you pay at the dentist, physio or optometrist.
Claims in person are immediate, other methods take a day or two, and hospital claims a bit longer.
