Health insurance members are being urged to use their extras cover before January 1

Private health insurance members could be missing out on their entitlements because they do not know about this one important aspect of their cover.

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Australians could be dudding themselves hundreds of dollars in savings by not claiming on their extras cover before the end of the month.

And this could include claiming on expenses such as glasses, gym memberships, swimming lessons, massages and sunscreen.

One in five private health insurance customers are clueless that most private health insurers reset their extras limits on January 1 each year.

Typically extras covers non-hospital treatments including dental, optical, physiotherapy, chiropractic and remedial massage.

Australians are being urged to claim on their extras cover before the end of December.

Latest Australian Prudential and Regulation Authority figures showed at the end of September 13.6 million people had some form of extras cover.

This was up by 35,000 people on the June quarter.

Health comparison website iSelect’s spokeswoman Jessie Petterd urged members to maximise their cover before missing out on their entitled claims.

“Now is the time to make sure you’ve received the maximum value out of your extras policy,” she said.

“If you paid $500 for your extras policy in 2019 and only claimed $100 worth of benefits throughout the year you could be missing out on $400 worth of benefits, so get claiming while there’s still time.”

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ARPA figures showed in the September quarter funds paid $193 million in optical claims, $110 million in physiotherapy claims and $74 million in chiropractic claims.

One of the nation’s largest funds, Medibank, which has 3.7 million members contributed to 24.3 million extra services and paid $1.3 billion in the 2018/19 financial year.

The fund’s chief customer officer David Koczkar said members should maximise these benefits now because they could get anywhere between 55 per cent and 85 per cent back on services.

“We want our customers to have choice, flexibility and get value from their extras cover,” he said.

Private health insurance members are being urged to claim on their extras cover before the end of December.

Rival insurer Bupa, which has 4 million members, said customers could use the fund’s app to get real-time updates on how much money they have claimed.

Bupa’s spokesman Tim Strahan said now was also a good time for members to reassess their cover.

“The lead up to January 1 is also a great time for Australians to take stock of their health needs for 2020 and alter their policy if required,” he said.

“For example, if your back has been playing up in recent times, it could be a good idea to upgrade your extras to include extra physio or chiro, allowing time to serve any upgrade waiting periods to then take advantage of fresh limits in the new year.”

@sophieelsworth

Originally published as Health insurance members are being urged to use their extras cover before January 1