Healthscope hospitals.

Healthscope runs 38 private hospitals across Australia including Ashford Hospital, Flinders Private Hospital, Memorial Hospital and Griffith Rehabilitation Hospital in South Australia.

It is owned by North American private equity group Brookfield, which controls more than a trillion dollars’ worth of assets worldwide.

We’re one of the not-for-profit health funds represented by the Australian Health Services Alliance (AHSA). Represented through the AHSA, we had an arrangement with Healthscope to cap fees to our members attending private hospitals run by Healthscope.

Healthscope proposed to charge our patients additional fees, on top of the agreed maximum fee, which we resisted. Healthscope has now moved to terminate their arrangements with AHSA, affecting us and 22 other health funds.

We’re working to reach a new agreement with Healthscope, and we’ll continue to advocate for you and strongly resist any increases in charges that could unfairly impact our members.

Hospital agreements provide a clear fee schedule for members. Our hospital agreements outline charges for our member's admissions to the hospital, including in-patient accommodation, theatre use, and special unit fees.  These arrangements allow Health Partners to cover more of your admission costs compared to other hospitals.

If you receive treatment at a hospital that doesn’t have an agreement with us, we will pay benefits as set out in your policy, but these benefits will usually be less than what you'd get at our contracted hospitals. So, if you're treated at a non-contracted hospital, you’ll most likely face higher out-of-pocket costs than receiving treatment at a contracted hospital.

Agreement terminations will affect the health funds represented by the Australian Health Services Alliance (AHSA) – all of these funds are small to medium-sized, not-for-profit heath funds. 

Many doctors have arrangements with more than one hospital. If your hospital treatment falls outside the above transition arrangements, consider discussing with your doctor about your options to book with them at an alternative hospital.

We have an extensive network of hospital providers.

In South Australia these hospitals include:

• Calvary Adelaide Hospital
• St Andrews SA
• Calvary North Adelaide
• Burnside Hospital Stepney (previously Sportsmed Hospital)
• Burnside Hospital Toorak Gardens (previously Burnside)
• Glenelg Community
• Western SA
• North Eastern Community
• Stirling Hospital Inc
• Calvary Central Districts

As a not-for-profit health fund, we will always look for ways to add value to our members and ensure accessible healthcare, while balancing impacts on our premiums for our whole membership base. We have successful agreements with over 500 private hospitals across Australia. In these agreements we advocate for terms and conditions that avoid putting additional pressure on our members’ health fund contributions.

We’re working to reach a new agreement with Healthscope, and we’ll continue to advocate for you and strongly resist any increases in charges that could unfairly impact our members.

If you’ve already booked treatment at a Healthscope hospital

As part of a transition agreement, there will be no change to your coverage if the following describe your hospital admission:

• It’s scheduled and occurs before 3 March 2025
• It’s pre-booked before 3 March 2025, and you are admitted before 3 September 2025 (excluding pregnancy and birth)
• It’s for pregnancy and birth (where you have booked before 3 March 2025 and you are admitted before 3 December 2025)
• It’s part of an ongoing course of treatment (that’s already started prior to 3 March 2025) up until, and including, 3 September 2025. If your treatment is scheduled past 3 September 2025, consider discussing alternatives with your specialist
• It’s an emergency admission, and you are admitted before 3 June 2025.

Please contact us on 1300 113 113 or ask@healthpartners.com.au if you are concerned about your specific treatment.

If you haven’t booked treatment at a Healthscope hospital

You can still choose to be treated at an out-of-contract Healthscope Hospital, however Healthscope may choose to charge an additional out-of-pocket expense from 4 March 2025.

It’s the responsibility of the hospital to explain any hospital out-of-pocket costs to you in detail prior to you agreeing to treatment. Knowing how much your admission and treatment will cost is called Informed Financial Consent. We’re happy to help guide you through this process.

Many doctors have arrangements with more than one hospital. If your hospital treatment falls outside the transition arrangements, consider discussing with your doctor your options to book with them at an alternative hospital. We have a large network of hospital providers in South Australia where you may have lower out-of-pocket costs.

From there you have a couple of options:

1. Accept the out of pocket costs at the Healthscope hospital and move ahead with the treatment.
2. Moving your admission to another contracted hospital, if your specialist is able to do so.
3. Seek treatment from another doctor or specialist, however this may need a new referral appointment, and you will need to consider any impacts this may have on your treatment and care.

We’re here to help. Please call us on 1300 113 113 or get in touch at ask@healthpartners.com.au if you’d like to discuss your situation further.

There are a couple of things you can do:

1. Check whether you are covered by the transitional agreements.
2. Talk to your specialist or doctor about whether they have arrangements with hospitals outside the Healthscope network – you may have the opportunity to be treated by them in a hospital we have a current contract with.
3. If your doctor only works at Healthscope hospitals we encourage you talk to them about the fees for your treatment to see whether they can offer any suggestions on how to reduce costs. You can also choose to seek treatment from another doctor or specialist, however this may need a new referral appointment, and you will need to consider any impacts this may have on your treatment and care.

Many doctors have arrangements with more than one hospital. For hospital treatments that fall outside the transition arrangements and to avoid or minimise your out-of-pocket costs, consider discussing with your doctor about your options to book with them at an alternative hospital. We have a large network of hospital providers where you may have lower out-of-pocket costs.

You can also still choose to be treated at an out-of-contract Healthscope Hospital, however Healthscope may charge an additional out-of-pocket expense. Please read our FAQ ‘I don’t have a treatment booked in now, but need an admission soon. What can I do?’ for more information.

It’s the responsibility of the hospital to explain any out-of-pocket costs to you in detail by the hospital prior to you agreeing to treatment. Knowing how much your admission and treatment will cost is called Informed Financial Consent. We’re happy to help guide you through this process.

To avoid these additional out-of-pocket expenses, you can check with your doctor if they will treat you at one of our alternate agreement hospitals.

We’re here to help. Please contact us on 1300 113 113 or ask@healthpartners.com.au closer to your procedure date if you are concerned about your specific treatment.

Informed Financial Consent means that:

• You’ve been informed about the costs you can expect, and what benefits you’re getting for that cost. Your doctor and hospital have a responsibility to give you all the information before you have your treatment.
• You consent to them, knowing what you’re getting, and what you’ll need to pay.

Your Informed Financial Consent should include:

• Information about your procedure, including the item number, and the fee for each item.
• What you’ll pay for things like your accommodation, and use of the operating theatre.
• What you’ll pay for each doctor, including your anaesthetist.
• What you’ll pay for any protheses you are having
• Your signature, or the signature of your guardian.

• Ashford Hospital
• Flinders Private Hospital
• Griffith Rehabilitation Hospital
• The Memorial Hospital

• Campbelltown Private Hospital
• Hunter Valley Private Hospital
• Lady Davidson Private Hospital
• Nepean Private Hospital
• Newcastle Private Hospital
• Northern Beaches Hospital
• Norwest Private Hospital
• Prince of Wales Private Hospital
• Sydney Southwest Private Hospital
• The Hills Private Hospital
• The Sydney Clinic
• Tweed Day Surgery
• Windsor Road Private Clinic

• Dorset Rehabilitation Centre
• Holmesglen Private Hospital
• John Fawkner Private Hospital
• La Trobe Private Hospital
• Knox Private Hospital
• Melbourne Private Hospital
• North Eastern Rehabilitation Centre
• Northpark Private Hospital
• Rehab at Home
• Ringwood Private Hospital
• The Geelong Clinic
• The Melbourne Clinic
• The Victoria Clinic
• The Victorian Rehabilitation Centre

• Brisbane Private Hospital
• Gold Coast Private Hospital
• Peninsula Private Hospital
• Pine Rivers Private Hospital
• Sunnybank Private Hospital

• National Capital Private Hospital

• Darwin Private Hospital

• Hobart Private Hospital

• Mount Hospital