NewsBite

Health insurance

This Month

Chris Blake, the boss of St Vincent’s

St Vincent’s splits with insurer NIB amid private hospitals ‘crisis’

St Vincent’s on Thursday told health fund NIB it would walk away from its contract over an entrenched pricing disagreement.

  • Tom McIlroy

June

Danielle Handley, BUPA chief customer and transformation officer, is passionate about the way technology, data and digital continue to enable innovation.

‘We need to be champions of other women’

By the time Danielle Handley arrived at health insurer BUPA, the executive who hired her had left. She had to lead a company transformation without a boss.

  • Sian Powell
The debate on the pressures on private hospitals ignores the fact that many new facilities are opening their doors.

The bottom line is private hospitals are evolving, not collapsing

The government’s “financial health check” review should kick-start a conversation about innovation and the fate of some old, inefficient facilities.

  • Matthew Koce
Royal Prince Alfred hospital provides healthcare to those in quarantine, via virtual health.

Help us or hospital system could fail: private operator

One of Australia’s largest Catholic hospital operators says a review of the viability of the private sector must secure a viable business model.

  • Tom McIlroy

May

The ATO also has outstanding debts with eReports.

Doctors owed millions in collapse of service provider

The Melbourne-headquartered eReports allegedly failed to disclose $7.2 million owed to more than 400 specialists before calling in administrators.

  • Max Mason
Advertisement
Healthscope has a contract with the NSW government to run the public wing of Northern Beaches Hospital until 2038.

Brookfield’s Healthscope debt trap is a mess for everyone involved

The investment giant is bringing its punchy approach to restructuring – and tactics more often found in the US – to Australia as it works on the hospital group.

  • Jemima Whyte

March

Healthscope chief executive Greg Horan says a weakened private hospital sector will eventually put pressure on the public hospital sector.

The real story behind Healthscope’s restructure

As the Brookfield-owned Healthscope enters restructuring talks with its army of lenders, a much deeper crisis is playing out across the private hospital sector. 

  • Updated
  • James Thomson
Bupa launched a nine-day fortnight trial a month after Medibank started experimenting with a four-day week.

Hundreds of workers trial nine-day fortnight at Bupa

Private health insurer Bupa has joined the growing ranks of white-collar employers experimenting with a nine-day fortnight.

  • Euan Black
Healthscope CEO Greg Horan.

Healthscope calls in restructuring specialists

Canadian infrastructure giant Brookfield’s private hospitals business Healthscope has called in restructuring specialists, as insurers tighten their fists on payouts to the sector. 

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
The Chanticleer podcast features James Thomson and Anthony Macdonald.

The industry still struggling post-COVID; How to avoid burnout; A GDP slump we had to have?

This week, James and Anthony ask if Australia’s weak economic growth even matters, reveal top hacks for dodging burnout, and ask why the private health system seems sick.

NIB Holdings CEO Mark Fitzgibbon has sympathy for private hospital operators.

Hospitals are the pain point in the private health sector

NIB boss Mark Fitzgibbon acknowledges private hospitals are under pressure. Tuesday’s rise in health insurance premiums will kick off a new battle. 

  • James Thomson

Private hospitals sound alarm as premiums rise

More than a dozen private hospitals have closed since last year, with NIB boss Mark Fitzgibbon warning of a structural change in the provision of medical care.

  • Michael Read and James Thomson
Private health insurance premiums will rise by an average of 3.03 per cent on April 1.

Health insurance premiums are rising. See how your fund compares

Almost 15 million private health insurance customers will see their premiums rise by an average of 3.03 per cent on April 1.

  • Updated
  • Michael Read

February

Medibank chief executive David Koczkar said the business was resilient, highlighting the growth of its non-resident market.

Medibank shares fall on disappointing policy growth guidance

Citi analyst Nigel Pittaway said the result was a “slight disappointment” as growth rates moderate across private health.

  • Lucas Baird
Kylie Bishop, head of human resources at Medibank.

Taxpayers shouldn’t have to subsidise Medibank’s four-day week

Rather than lead the pack in extending long weekends to its staff, the health insurer should cut its operating expenses and reduce premiums.

  • Nick Hossack
Advertisement
Nick Stone, chief executive of Bupa APAC, acknowledges start-ups need freedom from large corporate processes.

Bupa becomes a venture capital player with $20m fund

Bupa Asia Pacific has raised funds to try and make the corporate VC model work, by backing the next generation of health tech start-ups.

  • Jessica Sier

December 2023

Hospitals are struggling with the rising costs of recruitment, power and food,

Keeping premiums affordable requires modern healthcare

If Labor wants to keep health insurance affordable to take pressure off the public system, tougher reforms are needed to make our health system more efficient and sustainable.

  • Rachel David

Labor rejects 6pc rise in health insurance premiums

Health Minister Mark Butler has rejected a request to lift premiums by 4 to 6 per cent, as Labor tries to quell voter discontent over cost of living pressures.

  • Updated
  • Michael Read

November 2023

Cura runs a string of day surgeries around the country.

Three’s a crowd: Medibank in final furlong for $500m-plus Cura

It’s a straight-up cleaner deal for ICG, which has owned the business previously.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Brad Welsh at the Ranger mine.

A pet crocodile is the least interesting thing about this CEO

ERA chief Brad Welsh has worked in child protection services, the Prime Minister’s Office and shares a house with a baby croc.

  • Peter Ker

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/health-insurance-5y5