YOU'VE BEEN WARNED! HIF went through a growth phase with competitive pricing and good customer service around a decade ago. From my experience, that company no longer exists. I've been a longstanding customer and ran into a problem, which they refused to meet me half way on, said I needed to do my 12 month waiting period for a second time, I was expecting more as a 7-year customer. In the face of the Ombudsman they refused to budge - their stubbornness to offer any relief to me as a longstanding customer should be a warning for you as an existing or potential customer.

Switched to HIF thinking I was getting a good deal on Extras + Hospital cover with waiting periods waived. It wasn't. Had to make an official complaint to get anywhere. They ended up throwing a customer service manager at me who was extremely nice about everything, but powerless to do anything against "administration". Their loss, BUPAs gain.

Can’t recommend HIF - their service is really subpar unfortunately. Phone queues so long you give up, or wait close to weeks for confirmation they received your reply to the “very urgent” email sent by HIF. Lose/ lose Not been a customer long and already looking elsewhere. Save yourself the hassle

Don't use HIF. We have been with them for 13 years. My son has been taken off our policy. We had no notification from HIf although they claim to have sent e-mails. We only found out when we received a new membership card. Our policy price hasn't changed although we have one less person on the policy. To add our son back on he will have to wait the 3 months to make a claim. HIF say that they can't reinstate him. There is nothing like customer great customer service and this is nothing like great customer service.

Don’t bother with this company. After 8 weeks of paying nearly $500 they realised that they had got my age wrong and decided to up my repayments by nearly 50%. When I called to say I’d like to cancel and get a refund she said I was not entitled to a refund because my 30 days cooling off period had gone.

Hi Guys, Just a heads up. I just got declined a claim that I got paid for a same service. There staff is so messed up and untrauned and they make customers pay for their staff's mistakes. Please choose wisely as I feel so bad and frustrated due to their management and claims handling.

This is the 3rd Private Health fund I have been with in a 22 year period. Most happy with timeframe turnaround for claims and ease of calling to speak to a customer service representative direct. Very positive experiences every time. Best private health fund I have been insured with thus far.

An updated HIF review. Hospital / surgeon claims? Only accepted via post or in person. All other contemporaries allow for it to be at least emailed, most even utilise their app. For some reason the HIF app is reserved for extras only. How archaic and irritating. Please update the service, this is painful. However, HIF do get some marks for being quite generous on their claim payouts. From my experience they do pay more than the big other local rival also starting with an H and ending in an F. HIF are just a little slower at paying out than the other blue H*F, but generally it isn’t anything unreasonable. Another plus was that the yearly price rise this year was very reasonable. I know not all insurers are following suit in that, so kudos for keeping prices low

Been with HIF for years. I pay a lot for top level cover, but not any more than I would be paying with another company. Used my insurance for a few hospital stays and extras without issue. Claiming extras is very easy using their app, you can do it all online just by sending them a photo of your invoice. The only part about this that I don't love is it is not really possible to track the progress of your claim. It would be good if you could claim hospital services online also. As with most health insurance, the extras packages come with lots of things I will never use, it would be good if extras options in general were more customisable and you could just choose and pay for what you use. Their ambulance cover is really, really good.

Arguably the worst private health insurance in Australia. They will 1) Deny the existence of your university degree 2) deny your relation to your family 3) finally put your name on the family health insurance but put it down twice with incorrect spelling ensuring it does not work for you 4) promise to fix this problem by putting three x’s infront of one of your names in the hopes that will fix the problem. 5) it won’t. 2 years later and I have yet to have a successful experience where a hif card has been acceptable by any clinic

Disappointed with their Customer Service. I think the staff needs to be trained and more friendly. Wasted 67 minutes for nothing.

Extremely disappointed with the level of service I have received. Do not sign up to this health fund, how they treat their customers is appalling. I signed up for a policy in January 22 as my husband is 31 and we wanted to avoid the health cover loading. I did not think anything of the waiting periods as we had no health concerns. Our GP referred us to an ENT later this year as our daughter had been having lots of cold/flus over the winter period and she determined her tonsils were anatomically large. The ENT subsequently recommended they be removed. When booking our surgery I naively thought we had no pre-existing conditions as the condition had just been diagnosed. When I spoke to HIF initially I was assured I was covered. I was sent a statement which said I would not have to pay anything. The hospital then called me the day prior to the surgery to enquire about a pre-existing condition form. I was unaware this had to be completed. After attempting to complete the form the day prior to the surgery I was then told it takes 10 days to be processed - this again was not communicated to me by HIF when I initially enquired about the form. The surgery was postponed. I hear nothing from HIF. I call almost 2 weeks prior to the next scheduled surgery date to see what is happening with the form as I have heard nothing. At this point HIF have had the completed form for a number of weeks. What ensued was the most ridiculous and mentally draining back and forth I have ever experienced. An independent doctor had to review my daughters medical records and could not give an answer because of some supposedly conflicting dates given by my GP. But to ascertain this was the issue took about 5 days and an inordinate number of phone calls to HIF as well as my GP. All of this only to be told 2 days prior to the scheduled surgery that she was not covered because she had a cold 6 months prior to us signing up which had nothing to do with the date issue and would have been known prior to the ridiculous back and forth. When I expressed my displeasure at how I had been treated as well as how this process had unfolded I was told “HIF has to protect its customers” as if I am not a customer but just someone trying to scam them out of money. This line is incredibly offensive. The staff clearly need some more appropriate conflict management training. At the end of the day the procedure will be covered by the HIF as the exclusionary period ends in 6 weeks. What I really did not appreciate is the lengthy process, the time wasting, and the toll the stress of this process has taken on my mental health. Had I been told 10 days after filing the form (the period of time I was assured this would take) I could have given our surgeon appropriate notice. Instead I have had to reschedule the surgery the day prior not once but twice. Once this surgery is complete I will be taking my business elsewhere. I am also referring this issue to the health ombudsman. Please do not sign up to this health fund if you can avoid it. They are awful.