Essential for your stay in Australia.

Firstly, it’s important to understand that you have a choice when it comes to obtaining your OVHC coverage while you visit Australia. You are not obligated to use the OVHC provider recommended by your host institution.

Firstly, it’s important to understand that you have a choice when it comes to obtaining your OVHC coverage while you visit Australia. You are not obligated to use the OVHC provider recommended by your host institution.

OVHC is a product designed to assist overseas visitors in covering the costs of medical treatment they may require while staying in Australia. The Australian government has mandated that all overseas visitors in Australia, with a few exceptions, must hold an OVHC policy for the duration of their stay.

Primarily, OVHC provides coverage up to the current Medical Benefits Schedule. Essentially, this means that overseas visitors receive similar medical coverage to Australian residents under their OVHC policies. This coverage is at a base level.

The Australian healthcare system comprises two streams: public and private. Public healthcare is generally provided free of charge to Australians, although an increasing number of medical practitioners are charging fees above the MBS, necessitating a “gap” payment. In the private system, doctors typically charge rates based on market demand. Generally, service quality is higher in the private health system. However, for the most part, both systems use the same medical facilities. In Australia, opting for private healthcare usually involves gaining access to specific medical professionals rather than different medical facilities.

Additional health insurance, in addition to OVHC, can be acquired to cover the costs associated with using the private healthcare system. It’s important to note that private health fund rebates often do not cover the fees charged by private medical practitioners, so there may still be out-of-pocket expenses even with private health insurance in addition to OVHC coverage.

At a minimum, OVHC policies must cover the following:

• The benefit amount listed in the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) fee for out-of-hospital medical services (e.g., general practitioner visits).
• 100 percent of the MBS fee for in-patient medical services (e.g., surgeries).
• Shared ward accommodation in public hospitals.
• Shared ward accommodation in private hospitals (only for hospitals with contractual arrangements with the overseas visitor’s health insurer).
• Day surgery accommodation.
• Some prosthetic devices.
• Pharmaceutical benefits up to $50 per pharmaceutical item, with a maximum of $300 per year for an individual membership ($600 for a family membership). Overseas visitors may incur significant out-of-pocket costs if they do not have appropriate coverage for pharmaceutical treatments, particularly for oncology (cancer) treatment.
• Ambulance services.

OVHC policies cannot cover the following expenses:

• Medical treatments arranged before arriving in Australia.
• Medical treatments required while traveling to or from Australia.
• Transportation of an overseas visitor or their dependents into or out of Australia for any reason.
• Costs covered by compensation and damages provisions.

Visitors must obtain OVHC coverage for the duration of their intended stay in Australia. If you extend your stay, you must renew your OVHC policy.

What Are Preferred Providers? Many universities and educational institutions have a preferred provider agreement with a specific insurer. While every visitor has the choice of which OVHC provider to use, we found that many visitors opted for the default option, either because they preferred simplicity or because they were unaware of their choices.

What Are the Benefits of Choosing a Preferred Provider? Some of the advantages of selecting a policy from the preferred provider include:

• On-campus claiming: If you prefer not to claim online, preferred providers often have an office on one of the university campuses they are partnered with.
• Bulk billing on campus: In some cases, if you need to see a General Practitioner, the on-campus GP may bulk bill clients of the preferred provider.
• Modified policy terms: Certain OVHC providers may have a preferred provider arrangement with an educational institution where they offer a specific policy.

You should verify the preferred provider for your university and explore any additional benefits they may offer to visitors when comparing OVHC policies. Then, you can decide whether these extra benefits outweigh the cost difference between policies offered by the preferred partner.

Get prepared for your journey with OVHC.