What is Access Gap Cover and how does it work?

Access Gap Cover is a gap cover scheme that is included as part of some health insurance policies. It helps reduce or, in many cases, eliminate potential out-of-pocket expenses that you may incur when claiming treatments under private health insurance plans. However, not all funds or practitioners participate in the Access Gap Cover Scheme.

What is the Access Gap Cover Scheme?

Access Gap Cover is the gap cover scheme administered by the Australian Health Services Alliance (AHSA) and provided by funds that are part of the AHSA. The program aims to cover the cost of gap expenses when being treated as a private patient. Funds that are part of the AHSA include many smaller brands, including Teachers, Defence, and CUA. Providers not part of the AHSA may have their own gap cover schemes.

The most significant out-of-pocket expenses that you may incur are gap expenses. These refer to the gap between how much you’re covered and how much a medical practitioner charges for a certain medical treatment.

This gap can vary widely depending on the practitioner and the type of treatment that’s needed. As such, the Access Gap Scheme simplifies the process, reduces costs and makes sure everyone knows exactly how much they’ll need to pay in gap expenses, if anything.

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How the Access Gap Scheme works

Access Gap Cover helps cover the costs for private hospital treatments. To understand how it helps, it’s a good idea to get an understanding of the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS). The MBS is a list of the medical procedures covered by Medicare and private health insurance hospital cover, including the treatments costs.

Whether you go to a public or private hospital, Medicare and health insurance will generally only cover the MBS amount. If you don’t have health insurance, Medicare pays 100% of the MBS amount for your treatments. If you have private health insurance, Medicare will pays 75% while the health fund pays the remaining 25%.

When the Access Gap Scheme kicks in

When a doctor charges more for a treatment, the difference between the MBS amount and their fee is the gap. The Access Gap Scheme helps bridge the gap by benefiting both doctors and patients. It generally lets doctors receive more than the MBS amount without putting the full burden of gap expenses on the patient.

Most private health insurance hospital plans from participating funds include Access Gap Cover and doctors can choose whether to participate in the Access Gap Scheme. Patients can also ask whether a doctor participates in the scheme before undergoing a procedure and find out exactly how much they will need to pay, if anything, in gap expenses.

Private health insurance providers have their own Access Gap Cover arrangements, and different health funds may have different Access Gap arrangements with different doctors. This can affect the likelihood of you getting treatment from a provider that participates in the scheme. In general, all private health funds will have many participating practitioners.

Questions to ask your doctor

If your health insurance includes Access Gap Cover, you can ask the following questions prior to receiving treatments.

• Are you going to treat me under my fund’s Access Gap Cover arrangements?
• Will I incur any personal out-of-pocket expenses for my treatment, and can I get a written estimate?
• Will any assisting doctors also use Access Gap Cover?
• Are you prepared to send the bill to my fund directly, so that they can claim my Medicare benefit on my behalf and send the payment back to you?

How the Access Gap Cover scheme benefits doctors

The scheme is helpful to doctors and encourages their participation. Doctors may decide to participate in the scheme for the following reasons:

• It simplifies payment and billing.
• It improves a doctor’s cash flow with a clear 21-day bill turnaround.
• It reduces the risk of bad debts for doctors.
• Doctors can accept or decline to participate on a case-by-case basis.
• Some health funds may agree to pay more for participating doctors, so they can earn more than the MBS amount for procedures.

FAQs

• What does Access Gap Cover mean?

  Access Gap Cover (AGC) is a billing arrangement under some private hospital health insurance policies. Essentially, it enables a specialist or practitioner who treats you as a private patient in a hospital to limit or eliminate the "gap" (out-of-pocket cost) between their fee and what Medicare and your health fund pay.

  It doesn't apply to all medical providers or services (for example many pathologists or radiologists are excluded) and participation is voluntary by doctors.

• How does Access Gap Cover reduce my out-of-pocket expenses?

  Here's how it works in plain terms:

  When you are admitted to hospital as a private patient, Medicare pays 75% of the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) fee and your fund pays the remaining 25% (for eligible hospital items).

  If a specialist charges more than the MBS fee (which many do), the difference is your "gap" or out-of-pocket cost.

  Under AGC, if the specialist opts in, the health fund (or scheme) pays a higher benefit than the standard 25% and the doctor voluntarily limits their fee so your gap is much smaller or even zero.

• Which health fund providers participate in the Access Gap Cover scheme?

  The scheme is administered by the Australian Health Service Alliance (AHSA) on behalf of a range of private health funds. Some of these include, Teacher's Health, CBHS Health Fund, Defence and CUA. You can also find a full contact list of participating funds on the AHSA website.

Written by

Andrew Munro

Editor

Andrew Munro was the global cryptocurrency editor at Finder. During his time he covered all aspects of cryptocurrency and the blockchain. Before he became cryptocurrency editor, he was a content writer for Finder covering various topics over his nearly 5 years in the role. Prior to joining Finder he was a web copywriter. Andrew has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New South Wales. See full bio