hif.com.au

Switched to HIF Gold cover 3 yrs ago, was going to be $3500.00 out of pocket for husbands sinus surgery so decided to go public, wait time 3 months and no cost. Not one of 9 surgeons contacted participated in hif gap scheme and yet their premiums have gone up substantially since joining, will be switching. Very disappointed

Recently received notice from HIF that my Goldstarter hospital cover will be changed to Bronze Plus starter hospital ( because of the reforms).
Letter mentioned how great the new cover will be and listed the cover inclusions/exclusions however what HIF FAILED to mention is that AMBULANCE COVER will no longer be offered under their hospital policies. I'm a NSW resident, so being informed that ambulance cover will not be available is important to know.
I think HIF is seriously in breach of product disclosure/changes and I will be escalating this matter to the Industry ombudsman.

I am scheduled for surgery tomorrow- I was given the go ahead by HIF. I later receive a call from the hospital saying I cannot have my surgery because I have a pre-existing condition and am only covered from July 17. My surgery is not pre-existing and has occurred due to sudden developments. I am furious and extremely distressed by this turn of events. My case is being reviewed and with some common sense I can go ahead for surgery tomorrow. If not - a thunderstorm of action is going to rain down upon HIF.

Back in January this year, we received an ambulance bill, for one of the kids, I was panicking about how we would pay this amount and my partner suggested contacting HIF to see if it was covered and it was!! Such a big relief, process was explained, forms posted to us, very straight forward process. Very pleased and am happy to be supporting a WA NFP business.

My husband and I transferred to hif from one of the major health funds due to massive price increases every year. We find hif to be very competitively priced and we like that it is a member's own fund, not a for-profit fund. When I have called, I have found my calls to be answered quite quickly. Lodging an extras claim through the app takes a few weeks to be paid, but I don't find that to be a major issue. I love that I can claim through an app....previous health fund did not even have this capability! Had to post it in or go to a branch. Very happy and have already recommended hif to a friend who joined up.

I only need more contact with people to get information and there no available phone or no one answer me in an emergency moment. The customer support is awfull, I will coment more information when I solve my problem

I have been a HIF member for over 40 years. When it was paper and pen era, I found no problem to make a claim. Now in this digital era, this is the first time I make a claim online. A claim has been sent twice to the email address, [email protected], as shown in the HIF website, and have been knocked back every time.

Just wonder what is happening? Is this email address obsolete? I have tried to lodge a claim online but to no avail due to time restrictions. Why the time limits?
Can someone please point me to the right direction where should I send my claim to, or forward my claim to the relevant department for processing?

Scanning the receipts, trying to lodge the claim online but to no avail, then downloading and filling in the claim form electronically, preparing the email, sending and re-sending the email, double check the email address on the web, all in all it took me more than two hours and still cannot lodge this claim electronically. It would probably take me less than 15 minutes to scan and print copies of the receipts, fill in the claim form and put everything in an envelope and put it it the mail! What a waste of my time!!!

Other than that, I am quite happy with HIF in terms of direct claims from service providers. Telephone calls to HIF wait time have been around 5 minutes. This is very acceptable comparing to ringing the Telcos and the usual wait time is 30 to 40 minutes.

Deeply unstatisfyed at the moment, I change my level of cover to a lower grade, which was supposed to be $230ish a month... which was changed a month ago.. yesterday they took out $800 of my account!! After calling them because my account is now overdrawn because no one has a spare $800 laying around, they couldn’t give it back to me straight and way.. because of as they said “business” even though it was their fault! So now I’m over drawn, my husband couldn’t even put petrol in his car, and they have said it could still take 4-5 days to get it back... so I can’t buy my children food. I’m so furious at their lack of accountability when they were in the wrong and they can’t give MY money back which effectively I feel they like I have been robbed.

I rang HIF on 31 March to cancel my health insurance policy, with an effective cancel date of 4 April. On 5 April I found that HIF had charged my credit card for another month's insurance. I rang HIF and they assured me a refund would be issued on my card for the month's insurance within a week. It is now 20 April and I have yet to receive a refund.

It's not bad enough that HIF charged my card after I cancelled, but now they are holding on to the funds. It should not take more than 2 weeks to issue a refund! Very poor service and outdated processes. They still haven't implemented the ability to change payment methods on their online portal.

After 5 years of paying for maternity cover, we were blessed with my son. We paid everything up front and after waiting 5 months for refunds of over $1,200 - were told that the Medicare client report we received was not sufficient proof that we had made the payments and we needed an additional report sent by Medicare directly to HIF. So I had to queue in the Medicare/Centrelink line for over 2 hours with a 5 month old baby to be told that HIF had been sent the information and they were unable to physically print it or send it to me because it was internal hospital coding - already sent to HIF.
I tell HIF, they tell me Medicare is wrong. I queue again at Medicare for over an hour to be told the same thing. Finally, after 10 calls, in December HIF processes my refund. No apology, no compensation. I provide them with some feedback to prevent another mum from suffering the same fate. Over one year later I get a call from a claims supervisor who lies and says he called me in December last year - funnily enough my voicemail and Telstra records can prove otherwise. He makes no apology and accuses me of causing a problem - preventing the refund when I physically had nothing to do with the communications between Medicare and HIF. What a way to treat a new mother. Just what you need when you are already sleep deprived and exhausted. I should have stayed with HBF.

I took a HIF policy with their promise of $150 FPOS card. Please look out for this as this is a big scam. It has been 3.5 months and the card hasn't reached me yet. I have called them atleast 4 times already. The 1st call they told me that it will only be dispatched after 3 months of holding the policy. Then I called them again on 12th June they said it will be dispatched on the 14th, and today is 19th and i haven't still received it. It is a big big scam. Don't get a policy wit HIF

I have HIF insurance for a few years now. I have used them for 2 shoulder surgeries and for the kids teeth and the usual physio etc. No real complaints, I just wish we could dump the junk benefits and make the policies cheaper.

We took this cover two years ago as we were planning for a future pregnancy and were aware of the 12 month wait. We looked online until we found the HIF Goldsaver cover, which was perfect and good value if all you wanted was pregnancy and none of the other medical policies that you never end up using.
We got a letter from HIF yesterday advising that under new government laws, our current cover will be terminated and in order to keep our pregnancy policy, we had to swap to a Gold hospital cover, which is $500 more a year!!!!!
This raise is unreasonable and completely unjustified, and because all pregnancy covers require a 12 month wait, we cannot swap provider and are stuck with HIF. Once the pregnacy is carried out, we will be swapping health insurance, if not getting rid of it completely. Very unhappy with HIF, I do not recommend it.

Been with HIF for 5 yrs but after 5 yrs of crazy price rises, its time to do some serious shopping around. I've barely used the policy other than dental and a day-patient procedure. Now have had a message that they are no longer covering day procedures. The over $12K I've given them in those 5 yrs could be sitting in a bank acct to cover my medical bills. I think families and couples get better discounts (according to feedback from friends) - but singles you pay through the roof!

I have been with HIF for almost 6 years now and have always been extremely happy with the level of service provided. My main reason for choosing them was due to upcoming orthodontic treatment and jaw surgery. I spent some time researching different policies, with very mixed results. Some companies provided very limited information, some just issued blanket Product Disclosure Statements with little or no specific guidance, and one just point blank refused to insure me based on the fact that it was a pre-existing condition. HIF, however, attentively responded to all of my emails and calls and produced itemised quotes based on the treatment plan. It was an obvious choice. Fast forward a number of years and having completed my treatment plan, I am extremely happy with the level of service I have received. Jaw surgery can be a fairly daunting experience but knowing exactly what you are covered for, what benefits you will receive, and any out of pocket costs you may incur, takes away a lot of the stress beforehand. HIF's support in this regard was excellent and certain costs such as hospital and anaesthetist costs are covered without the patient having to do anything. Post treatment, claims were processed quickly and easily. Overall, a very positive experience with HIF.

I’ve been a HIF member for over 10 years now and I couldn’t be happier with them. During that time, I’ve had three day admissions to hospital and my husband’s had one, and HIF has always taken care of everything without question.

On the extras side, I regularly compare our ‘Super Options’ extras cover with other funds but haven’t been able to beat it for price and coverage yet. My husband and I each claim $350 on glasses/sunnies/contacts every year, and they also have an extra discount arrangement with Specsavers and a few other optical stores, so that brings any remaining costs down even further. We also claim a lot on dental each year and our dentist raves about HIF - they reckon they’re the best in the business. HIF’s $400 pharmacy annual limit is great for me too as I regularly have to claim for a particular medication so I always max that out each year. And it was good to see that HIF also improved their osteo rebates recently, as I use that quite often.

In terms of customer service, I’ve always found all of HIF’s reps to be friendly, well trained and very knowledgeable. If I ever need to call them, I’m usually only on hold for a couple of minutes before someone answers (very different to most service providers!), and HIF’s social media team are outstanding too. They’re super helpful and always resolve my queries quickly and professionally - I honestly couldn’t fault them.

Having just read some of the other reviews on here, it’s disappointing to see that even when HIF responds to complaints and resolves the issues, most reviewers don’t update their initial star ratings and comments to reflect that (credit where credit’s due and all that!). But again, it’s good to see that HIF takes every review seriously. Personally, I’ve always been made to feel like a valued member rather than just another policy number, and I like that HIF are not-for-profit and carbon neutral too - I think it says a lot about their focus on customers instead of shareholders. Oh, and the member rewards program is fantastic! I’ve referred heaps of friends over the years, and to say thank you, HIF sends me a $70 gift card for each one that joins up. Such a great idea!

So thank you, HIF. Five stars from me! :)

PS - LOVE Hif the dog!

Been with HIF for over 3 Years now, and highly recommend them.

It was reasonable on the first year, and thereafter, the premiums kept going up at ridiculous rates, from $2343 a few years ago and to $2963 now!! I wrote to enquire if there can be any discount from my annual premium. They told me to downgrade to another policy, which is suitable for young women with IVF, maternity & pregnancy benefits. I am a 64 years old man, not a young woman starting my family of babies. I am now looking around to switch back to my other fund.

Up until recently, I was with another insurer and paying a very high premium. I recently switched to HIF and while I slightly lowered my cover, I have managed to save a lot of money and still be covered for the things I need. I signed up over the phone and the salesperson, Gavin, was friendly and knowledgeable and made everything easy for me to understand (I'm a bit of a technophobe!). So far I'm very happy with the service and the benefits I've received for my optical and dental claims. I'm glad I've made the switch.

I went to the dentist for a check up and clean. I had only recently moved over to HIF and wasn't exactly sure how much they would cover. I was pleasantly surprised that they covered a huge chunk of the amount. I was really impressed and glad I made the move.