Services

Eligible for Medicare?

If you are covered by Medicare, Australia’s public health system, and you attend an Eastern Health hospital or receive a service, most of your costs are covered.

Some out-of-pocket expenses may apply, and these can include:

• co-payments for services like physiotherapy delivered by the Sub-Acute Ambulatory Care team
• medicines or items/equipment you receive from an Eastern Health Pharmacy
• Transition Care Program charges, which change twice a year in March and September. At 20 March 2022, the rates are:
  • $11.26 per day for home-based care or $54.69 per day for bed-based care.
  • The daily charges are 17.5% of the single Age Pension for home-based care or 85% of the single Age Pension for bed-based care.
• Residential Aged Care charges, which vary and are based on a Centrelink assessment of a patient’s income and expenses.

Not eligible for Medicare?

If you are not eligible for Medicare you will have to pay for any medical treatment and care at an Eastern Health hospital or site before you are treated.

If you have health insurance with an Australian health fund or travel insurance, you may be able to claim some of the costs after you have paid Eastern Health. We have listed some of the more common costs and item codes to help you check the cover you may have with an insurance provider.

We will do our best to give you an accurate estimate, but sometimes costs may change because of the amount of time you spend in hospital or the amount of care you need.

Costs listed here are indicative only and not all will apply to your situation.

Pharmacy costs (all patients)

Eastern Health charges for prescriptions dispensed at an Eastern Health Pharmacy. The Pharmacy Department will create a bill for medicines Eastern Health dispenses.

For medicines dispensed by the hospital pharmacy, the bill will be in the bag with your medicines, and you can pay the bill at the Cashier’s office (see Ways to pay page for opening hours) or by any method listed on the bill. Visit the Pharmacy Department for more information.

Note that if a Transition Care Program (TCP) client receives medicines from the Peter James Centre Pharmacy, we will send a bill to the client or the person responsible for payment.

For Transition Care Program clients at the Simon Price Centre (Mont Albert North) and the Martin Luther Homes (The Basin), medications are provided by a community pharmacy. These medications are charged at the retail, PBS or Safety Net price, and the community pharmacy will send a bill for the medications to the client or responsible person.

If you have questions about TCP pharmacy charges, discuss this with your TCP Case Manager.