Hi, i've just switched to Quinn Essential Starter. I was previously insured with Hibernian on their I plan & the new premium was €548! I've gone with Quinn's policy for €330.00. All I want is hospital cover inpatient/outpatient and cover if abroad, no bells & whistles policy.
Anyway Hibernian rang me today to find out why I was cancelling & I told them there policy was too expensive (i'm just gone on short time at work). They have now put a seed of doubt in my mind now because she said they Quinn have an excess for their hospital cover and it takes longer to claim?
There is no excess payable under Quinn Essential Starter if you are attending a participating public hospital. The Quinn Essential Starter plan also covers you for certain heart procedures in the Beacon Hospital and Mater Private where an excesses of €200 applies. The outpatient excess for the Quinn Essential Starter plan is €150 but GP visits and Dental visits,to name but two, are not available on this scheme. Double check all this imo.
Small point of order: Essential Starter members have full cover for certain heart surgeries in those two hospitals with no excess. (http://www.quinn-healthcare.com/products_and_services/essential_starter/cardiac.htm)
Essential Starter fullys covers a semi private room in public hospitals (or a private room in some smaller public hospitals) and there is no excess applicable to the hospital cover.
You have access to private hospitals as well, but you are liable for part of the costs yourself. The amount varies depending on the private hospital you use but it starts at a payment of €250 per day.
You can find a list of hospitals covered by Essential Starter here.
Regarding the longer claiming time, I haven't claimed from them (nor am I a member) so I can't comment. However, something to bear in mind is that all insurers have direct payment agreements with nearly all hospitals, so if there is a delay in processing payments, then the hospitals are the ones that are bear the inconvenience of the delay, not the customer. It is possible that a hospital will chase the customer up for payment if they get impatient about the payment time, but I used to work for BUPA (and in a hospital prior to that) and I've never heard of that being done.
Hope this all helps. The cynic within me says that it sounds like the Hibernian agent is trying to keep a member (understandable enough) but not being completely truthful about everything. However, it's perfectly possible that the agent is just misinformed.
One other thing. What level did you have with Hibernian? I only ask to make sure that you are on a similar plan with Quinn.
Thanks for pointing that out - I see now it's only the Essential plus starter plan and Essential plus plan that attract the excess for those procedures .
Going off topic now, but the excess doesn't apply to those plans for those procedures either. See here and here. Basically, as far as I can determine, for certain types of heart surgeries in "hi tech" hospitals, quinn-healthcare members have full cover, no excess. What will, depending on your plan, is the hi tech hospital you're covered in.
Just curious, where are you reading this information? If it's from the QUINN rules booklets, you need a degree in Learning Law through Ancient Greek to understand some it.
The hibernian plan I was covered for was I Plan Level 1 Hospital cover (no day to day) I queried Quinn about the excess for outpatient and there is a €150.00 excess for A&E & Consultant fees. I presented a scenario of where I had to go into the hospital for a scan as an outpatient and would I be covered. The agent went checking with her superior and the answer I received was say hypotecally if I had to go into for a kidney scan as an out patient, my cover does to pay for this.
So, I'm kind of concerned that if I had to go in for an x ray or something they will not pay. She did say the essential starter only covered the bare minimun on out patient care. I'm thinking of upgrading to another policy. Any advice. At this rate I should have stuck with Hibernian!!! Arrrgh!!
That is where I'm reading it from and while I did misread it the first time I have it front of me now again and it seems to me from the info given that the excess applies to the Essential plus starter plan and Essential plus plan!
Go to (XI) on Page 34 of the Essential Scheme Rules and Table of Benefits. I tried to past the text, but it just appears as small squares.
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