Dr Dwayne Crombie, Bupa Health Insurance Managing Director, says people born in late 1985 and the first half of 1986 were now of the age that Lifetime Health Cover loading would impact them from 1 July this year.

“We know that in Australia at that period there were approximately 245,000 people born and we identified the most common names by looking at Birth, Death and Marriage information.”

“It shows that for men Matthew, Daniel and Michael are most likely to need to sign up for private health insurance this year to avoid Lifetime Health Cover, while for ladies it’s Jessica, Sarah and Rebecca that need to act.”

If you delay taking out private health insurance until you're 31 or older, the Australian Government’s Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) loading means – depending on your age when you join – your premium could increase by at least 2% to a maximum of 70%.

If you pay any loading, it’ll apply for 10 years of continuous cover so you won’t have to pay it forever (as long as you keep continuous cover for the whole 10 year period).

To avoid this loading you need to have taken out hospital cover by 1 July following your 31st birthday.

Topics covered included:

• What drives healthcare costs
• End of life care
• Transitioning care to the community, where appropriate, to drive down costs
• How the community rating impacts private health insurance costs
• Looking at ways to encourage young people to take up private health insurance
• Private health insurance's value to the community

Dwayne Crombie joined Ben Davis in the 4BC Brisbane studio to talk about health insurance affordability and answer listener questions on 3 April 2017.

The ‘Always Events’ partnership commits Healthscope, Australia’s largest provider of integrated healthcare, and Bupa, Australia’s largest health insurer, to delivering the aspects of care that a patient should always receive for an optimal health outcome, beginning with medication management.

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, which has identified improving the safety and quality of medication usage in Australia as one of its priorities, estimates that 12% of all medical admissions to hospital are medication related. This number increases to between 20–30% for patients aged over 65-years.

To address this issue, Bupa patients at Healthscope hospitals will be assessed for their risk of experiencing medication-related issues. If identified as high-risk, the patient will be offered a program of medication education as well as the opportunity to receive automated alerts and script fill reminders through a free MedAdvisor account; home support calls from a telehealth coach who will facilitate ongoing medication literacy and adherence education; and post-discharge follow-up to the patient’s GP.

MedAdvisor medication software uses internet and mobile phone technology to provide patients with a tool that ensures they use medication safely, effectively and on-time; resulting in an improvement of up to 20% for medication adherence.

Robert Cooke, Healthscope Managing Director and CEO, said: “Always Events are the important, non-negotiable elements of healthcare that should always occur for all patients.

“The initial focus of this agreement is on improving medicine use, with a program to provide end-to-end medication support for high-risk patients.

“Our responsibility does not end on discharge – our patients will receive continued assistance with their understanding and use of medication which will also help reduce readmissions.

“With half the population holding private health insurance, coupled with the steady increase in private hospital demand, the provision of quality, patient-first healthcare has never been more important,” added Mr Cooke.

Dr. Dwayne Crombie, Managing Director of Bupa Health Insurance, agreed pointing to the current government, industry and healthcare provider focus on better integrating and coordinating the health system.

“This agreement is an example of how the private sector is taking action to improve the coordination of the health system and ultimately provide better patient care,” said Dr Crombie.

“At a time when system waste and inefficiencies are rightly being scrutinised, this is an approach that makes sense for everybody – consumers, hospitals, insurers and the broader health system all win when patients receive a quality outcome – not just a service.

“Collaboration remains the key to targeting the health system’s issues and we look forward to working with Healthscope to expand the Always Events approach across further aspects of patients’ care.”

The Always Events medication program will initially run throughout Sunnybank Private in Queensland, Norwest Private in New South Wales, Como Private in Victoria and Darwin Private in the Northern Territory.

The Always Events agreement between Healthscope and Bupa is part of the companies’ ‘Pay for Quality’ funding platform which was developed in 2014 and rewards Healthscope for providing better healthcare outcomes in clinical quality and safety.

In 2013, the ‘Never Events’ initiative was launched, with Healthscope agreeing to forego payment if a Bupa member experienced a clearly identifiable and preventable treatment error, with learnings from any errors also shared among Healthscope hospitals and with Bupa.

Bupa and Healthscope will continue to explore further Always Events initiatives that can be introduced as they continue to partner in delivering quality, patient-first healthcare.

• When fully developed, Whitecoat will allow consumers to find, book, review and pay for healthcare treatment with their chosen provider.

• Launched in 2013, Whitecoat is a healthcare provider directory and customer review website that helps consumers find, choose and review healthcare providers based on their service experience.

• Whitecoat already carries publicly-available information about more than 35,000 registered providers (including a booking capability) and hosts more than 250,000 customer reviews.

• While the platform now includes allied healthcare providers such as dentists, physiotherapists, and general practitioners, it is looking to expand to include medical specialists.

nib Managing Director Mark Fitzgibbon said the joint venture will give Whitecoat even greater reach and penetration across Australia, confirming its position as the ‘TripAdvisor’ for healthcare.

“There is simply too little transparency when it comes to the customer’s experience of the healthcare system. And dealing with healthcare providers remains very ‘clunky’ in a digital world in which consumers increasingly expect automation,”

Mr Fitzgibbon said it has always been the intention to develop Whitecoat into a healthcare industry-wide platform available to all providers and industry participants.

“From the very beginning, Whitecoat has been all about empowering consumers with better information to make more informed decisions,” he added.

“Whitecoat is another example how the digital world is shifting power away from the ‘sellers’ of goods and services to the ‘buyers’ and Whitecoat reflects this trend. It is pro-consumer,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

Dwayne Crombie, Bupa Australia Managing Director of Health Insurance, said: “Australia has a world-class healthcare system and some of the best clinicians, but many consumers want more information to assist their choice of healthcare provider and treatment.

“This is information that is readily available to consumers in almost every other industry and is critical to improving healthcare market efficiency and affording healthcare providers with greater visibility to consumers.

“Healthcare costs are set to keep rising as our population ages, so it’s important that the health and care sector can work together to help consumers make informed choices, and support the industry to operate more efficiently."

HBF Managing Director Rob Bransby said Whitecoat addressed the issue of the lack of transparency in healthcare.

He noted that healthcare providers themselves will benefit from Whitecoat.

“Whitecoat gives clinicians a new capability to automate a lot of paperwork, benchmark their performance against their peers, and provides information about the experience they are delivering to their consumers and patients,” Mr Bransby said.

Highly-respected business figure Graeme Samuel, who recently advised the Federal Government on making private health insurance more responsive to consumers, said it is widely acknowledged that Australia’s healthcare system needs to be more consumer-centric and user-friendly.

“Whitecoat looks like a big step towards providing consumers with information that can help them make better choices about treatment and providers. This kind of transparency is also crucial to driving competition and efficiency in a market which definitely has considerable scope for improvement,” Mr Samuel said.

Use Whitecoat to review your healthcare provider here.

Whitecoat in the media:

• 'First TripAdvisor, then Uber now there’s an online website to help you find the cheapest, best doctor', News.com.au
• 'New PHI 'whitecoat' website is set to disrupt doctors and specialists', Australian Financial Review
• 'Bupa, HBF join 'trip advisor' health platform', Sky News