Teachers Health Group – which includes Teachers Health, UniHealth and Nurses & Midwives Health – is returning (giving back!) approximately $55 million in claims savings to members via one-off payments directly into their bank accounts.

This is the latest in a series of measures we’ve rolled out over the last 3 years, including the $31 million 2022 give-back.

Eligibility extends to members with Hospital and/or Extras cover, whose membership was/is:

1. Paid up-to-date
2. Not suspended

On both these dates:

• 1 July 2022
• 1 August 2023

Eligible members will receive their payments by September 2023.

Payment amounts vary considerably – they’re calculated according to your cover on 1 July 2022. This includes the:

• Type of cover– Hospital, Extras, or both (includes StarterPak)
• Level of cover – e.g. Top Hospital or Essential Extras
• Membership – Single, Couple, or Family(includes Single Parent and Extended Family)

We’ll contact you with the details of your payment closer to the time.

No. It’s one payment per membership, not one for each person on your cover.

Payments will be transferred into your direct credit bank account (the account we pay your claims into). Please check/update your account details by 31 July 2023 in preparation for your payment.

Here’s how to do this via Online Member Services:

• Log in
• Go to Payments
• Click Payment details - claims
• Click Edit
• Select Bank account as Account type
• Enter BSB
• Enter Account number
• Enter Account name
• Click Next
• Tick Declaration (I declare that the above information is true and correct. I hereby authorise the above changes to my membership)
• Click Submit.

Online Member Services user guide

Still receiving cheque payments?

If you’ve been receiving your claims payments via cheque, you’ll need to register your bank details to be eligible for the give-back. Please do so (via the steps above) no later than 31 July 2023.

If we have your mobile number, we’ll send you an SMS to confirm the payment.

They’re based on a number of factors, including:

• Claims savings available– the total give-back amount
• Eligible memberships– the number of payments to be made
• Type of cover– Hospital, Extras, or both (which includes StarterPak)
• Level of cover – e.g. Top Hospital, Essential Extras, StarterPak
• Membership – Single, Couple, or Family (which includes Single Parent and Extended Family).

No. The give-back payments are in lieu of benefits members could have claimed, not a refund on premiums. So it won’t impact the rebate (for those who claim it).

As ever, we encourage you to talk to your tax agent if you have any questions.

It’s a fair question – here are two key factors:

1. Increases: The (deferred) average annual premium increases were confirmed back in December 2022. These periodic increases are carefully calculated to ensure we’ll be able to pay our members’ future claims.
2. Payments: We were only able to set the member payments once we’d calculated our COVID-19 claims savings. And this happened much later.

In this situation, one-off payments are the quickest and most efficient way to return the COVID-19 savings to you, our members.

Unfortunately, we can’t. The last thing we want to do is spend more money than necessary on give-back admin. The payment enables you to spend the money as you wish – ultimately giving you more choice.

Members with Ambulance-only cover on 1 July 2022 will not receive payments as ambulance services were accessible throughout the pandemic, unlike a number of Hospital/and or Extras services.