Anyone with Bupa Standard Hospital Cover?

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has Bupa standard hospital cover, and does this cover the gastric sleeve operation? As usual their policy statements are quite ambiguous and open for interpretation.

thanks!

Hi, I'm not with Bupa but I know one of the girls had problems with them (changed their policy and she was no longer covered!) best thing is to contact them, pretty sure the item number is 30511 (someone correct me if I'm wrong) and ask for confirmation in writing.  If they don't I think Medibank take into account the wait you have already had (so if you have been insured for more than 12 months you will have no new waiting period) if you swap to them.  Again someone step in if you can confirm my ramblings.....

yes i did. I would contact Bupa now though because there are changes this year to hospital cover etd.

Thanks ladies, I checked with bupa and they said my standard hospital will cover the sleeve, they also sent me confirmation in writing which is a bonus!

I am with Bupa they have covered me but I am not sure what you mean by standard hosp you don't have to have extras but the hosp cover must not be one of those with exclusions.  Can you name the cover I will try to look it up on there site I used to work for MBF now Bupa so I may understand there gobbly gook.  Generally if it says you are covered in a private hosp then it should be OK.  Some of the covers only give public hosp as a private patient that may not be enough.  There site will give a full list of coverage.  I think if you have it in writing you should be right but recheck the wording of the letter.

Hi bluebags, my cover is called standard hospital which is their medium cover, I just double checked the policy statement and it said I can go public or private hospitals, so it should be ok.
If for some reason they end up saying I'm not covered when it comes time, does anyone know if I switch my policy to another fund, will they honor the time I have had insurance for or will they start me on a new 12 month wait list? I've had PHI for 7 continuous years and will be very angry if bupa stuffs me around. I see many comments on here that others only had the basic levels of hospital cover which has been enough for the sleeve. So if bupa doesn't cover me on their second top hospital cover for which I pay $62/fortnight for just myself then they can stick their policy where the sun doesn't shine!

Sorry for that but getting worried that they will try to screw me over!!! Help if anyone has the same cover as me, let me know what happened

I have Bupa - one of the basic ones but I think it is hospital and extras.  I couldn't work it out either so I just called Bupa and they confirmed my policy covered the surgery.

Hi,

I have Bupa corporate classic cover and they said as long as the operation has a medicare number I am covered.

cheers Nini

I had my appt with surgeon on Thursday and was told right at the end of the appt that the admin lady had looked up my cover Basics with Bupa and that I wouldn't be covered. But my policy had covered it previously, is why I got it in the first place. Called Bupa, they said if I upgrade to standard cover by September 1st I will be covered for my October surgery and there would be no additional waiting periods and he emailed me a confirmation of the no waiting period so I could show my surgeon. So if any sleevers are having surgery and have basics hospital cover, contact them to upgrade so you don't get burnt like I nearly did!

Hi Anjela85,  Yes that is right about Bupa. I got a letter in mid April saying that my Basics Hospital Cover would no longer cover the sleeve in a private hospital, but would cover if I was to Go private with a public hospital. They told me I had two options to Book my surgery in before the 30 April (which was like in 6 days at this point). At the time I was waiting to see my surgeon but i fast tracked it saw him in a few days and booked it in for November.  I was really angry with Bupa for changing there policy just months into me having it. My second choice was as you were given if I didn't get it booked in before the 30 April as long as I upgraded my policy before the 1st Sept. then I could have booked in and not do the waiting time again.

As I said I chose to book in before the 30th of april which meant I kept the basic hospital cover and didn't need to pay the extra amount to upgrade and got it in a private hospital as a private patient. 

By the way it took Hours of phone calls with them, and it was a stressful nightmare, didn't sleep for days.  But its all booked in and all ready to go ahead. :)  (secretly I'm glad I could :562:to Bupa and get around there silly red tape)

Hi bithiah, oh wow I'm not the only one. I have to say I have found them to be great about it, I even called again for another letter be sent to the surgeon's office and it was done immediately. Hopefully you have a better experience In the future. That's a long wait for surgery. Mine is booked for October 22nd.

Hello Ladies,

I have a bit of a tricky question. I have changed to BUPA top hospital cover recently from another health fund where some obesity surgeries were covered and some not. Because I want to have the ability to choose sleeve, bypass or band dependant on my surgeon's recommendation on initial consult (next month), I wanted to change to really good cover so I have freedom of choice.

The BUPA rep I signed up with over the phone said anything I was covered for in this category prior will be covered no waiting period to resit but because the obesity categories are pretty much all the same level with in the BUPA system, even if I chose one of the surgery types that wasn't covered initially in this category there's a chance that BUPA with authorise it anyway with out the waiting period. 

My question is at which point do I have to show proof that my surgery will definitely be covered by BUPA? I know that if I called up BUPA today and asked them to send me a letter saying I'm covered (which I'm guessing we need for initial surgeon consult???) that that would be easy but when would BUPA cross check in their systems, contacting my old health fund to check waiting periods I had served and items I was originally covered for etc?

Thanks so much in advance for you help.