St John of God Health Care and Bupa have signed a new two-year partnership that aims to limit out-of-pocket patient costs and support local regional communities.
The partnership covers regional, rural and metropolitan areas across Victoria, Western Australia and New South Wales.
St John of God Health Care group CEO Bryan Pyne said the agreement with Bupa was a win for local communities and continued to provide access and choice to healthcare.
“As a not-for-profit hospital provider, we seek partnerships that help us ensure all the communities we serve have access to high quality, compassionate and patient centred private health care,” he said.
“Our partnership with Bupa helps provide our patients access to local doctors and surgeons at their choice of hospital.
“In areas like Geelong, where we have provided a maternity service for many years and is now experiencing a baby boom, we think it’s important that parents continue to have options to have their babies in a private hospital closer to home, which can reduce travel time and helps reduce some of the stress that comes with parenthood.”
Bupa Health Insurance managing director Chris Carroll said the partnership shows how insurers and hospitals could work together to keep private health care affordable with a patient-first mindset.
“We know how loyal regional and suburban communities are to their local hospitals, and we’re thrilled this partnership helps limit out of pocket costs for our members at a leading health care provider," said Mr Carroll.
“Partnerships with our private hospitals helps reduce out of pocket costs, support our world-leading mixed health system and helps take pressure off our public hospitals and their waiting lists."