Hearing Test

[SASydneysider]

This past week I had my first experience in Aus trying to arrange for a hearing test and discovered neither Medicare nor my private health care (HCF) covers the cost for a consultation.

The history ..... I phoned a couple of Audiologists to find out what it would cost me and whether Medicare covered the cost. The cost for a 1 hour consultation was between $90 and $45 and none of the places I phoned were covered by Medicare.

Not a problem, so I phoned HCF to find out if they covered any percentage. They told me they paid NOTHING because it is a normal consultation and any consultation is covered by Medicare. Next, I phoned Medicare. The answer I got was yest they DO and no they DON'T pay.

If the Audiologist uses a specific Medicare code on their invoice, Medicare will pay. None of the 5 audiologist I contacted uses this code and therefore Medicare will not pay. I did not get the reason why, so if anyone has an answer to this, please let me know.

During all this phoning, I also discovered that there are Audiologists and Audiometrists. I'm not sure what the difference is and if anyone can shed light on this, I'd appreciate that too!

The bottom line is if I want to have my hearing tested, neither my private health care nor Medicare pays even a portion of the consultation bill. It made me wonder why I have private health care ......., or for that matter pay tax towards public health.

SAS

Edited February 19, 2007 by SASydneysider

[Guest colton]

I have heard a couple of stories about the private health care.... none good, (payment wise) We only have medicare and I had an unexpected visit to the dentist, because medicare pays NOTHING towards dental I had to foot the $2500 bill. I looked into getting PHC just to cover dental but after speaking to a couple of dental practices, including maxio facial surgeons the feedback is that private will cover approx. 10 - 20% of the bill. If this is the case what is the point of having private cover? I think we need to do our homework really well when we look at taking out medical cover, most places suggested I consult a broker for the best package and cost.

We assume "private" medical cover works the same as in SA but it is definitely not the case.

[ExASP]

Ok now there is a few thing you should know about Private Health insurance...if you as a single person earn more than 50 000 per annum (and you have PR of course) You must have private health or pay extra medicare levy when you get to do your taxes.

If you are a family it goes up to 100 000.

Also...if you are over 33 and you have had your PR for longer than a year, you cannot use your South African mdical cover as an indication of the fact that you have had any cover ever, and you get penalized for it by increments for every year you are over 33. I think it is 33 at least.

Now maybe you earn less that 50 000 or 100 000 and think you dont have to get the private health but remember that penalty thing.

I am not sure of the exact amounts you may have to pay or the ages it takes effect in but if you go to www.mutualcommunity.com.au you will get good info on how much you may need to pay.

I hope this helps some.

[Guest colton]

Thanks for that, knew about the tax implications but don't have PR yet, just been assigned a case officer so it will happen soon. We need to sort it out but what I meant was that we need to check it out really well before just choosing any PHC. Thanks for the link.

Colton