We respect your right to decide what’s best for your child and family. Your child will get the same treatment whether they’re a public or private patient.
Public patient
If your child is eligible for Medicare, all their hospital costs as an inpatient will be covered.
You might have to pay for medication they get when they're discharged or as an outpatient. These are usually the same price as the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme co-payment for each item.
If they're not eligible for Medicare, you'll have to pay the full price for all medicines you get from our pharmacy.
Read more about Medicare on the Services Australia website.
Private patient
When you use private health insurance:
- you're helping support our hospital
- you won't pay out-of-pocket costs
- we'll cover any excess or co-payment if your child is staying in hospital.
Your child will also have the option of seeing their specialist for any ongoing care after they've been discharged.
Using your private health insurance
Talk to our Patient Options Liaison Team about using your private health insurance.
Our staff can:
- explain the process and benefits of being a private patient
- talk to your health fund for you and work out if your is child eligible.
We can also help you sort out any of the paperwork you need to do to make a claim. We can usually send your accounts straight to Medicare and your health fund on your behalf.
If you do get any bills, please send them to us and we'll take care of them.
You won't pay for:
- doctors' fees
- operating theatre fees
- tests like imaging and pathology
- prostheses
- medicines and other pharmaceuticals - not including discharge medicines.
If your private specialist has arranged your child's admission, you may have to pay some gap fees.
You can ask our Patient Options Liaison Team if you're not sure.
Helping us help sick kids
When you use your private health insurance, we get extra funding from your insurance company and Medicare. This helps us improve our facilities and services.
Contact our Patient Options Liaison Team
If you'd like more information, you can call our team on any of the following numbers:
You can also email CHQ_POLO@health.qld.gov.au.