A gap payment is the difference between how much a doctor charges you and how much Medicare or your health fund will give you back. If you have private health insurance, contact your health fund to check that your treatment in hospital is covered and to ask about your gap cover.
Gap cover is the arrangement some health funds make with individual doctors about gap payments. It can insure you against some of the difference between what a specialist charges you and what Medicare will give you back.
Choosing to use the doctors and hospitals that take part in your health insurer’s medical gap scheme can help reduce out-of-pocket costs. Here are examples of out-of-pocket costs. You will often have to pay these costs yourself.
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HWL Ebsworth Lawyers, Sydney, NSW; Leigh Aitken, Consumer; Mary Bairstow, Senior Social Worker, Cancer Centre, Fiona Stanley Hospital, WA; Lynette Brailey, Team Leader Financial Counselling, Cancer Council NSW; Corinne Jones and Siew Tan, Financial Counsellors, Cancer Council VIC; Penny Jacomos, Social Worker, Asbestos Diseases Society of South Australia, SA; Dr Deme Karikios, Head of Department – Medical Oncology, Nepean Cancer and Wellness Centre, Nepean Hospital, NSW; Valerie Parsons, 13 11 20 Consultant, Cancer Council SA; Viridian Financial Group, Melbourne, VIC.
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