If you’re going to be overseas for more than 60 days up to 2 years, you may be able to suspend your membership for the duration of your travel.
- You must be travelling outside of Australia, and suspending your membership for a minimum of 21 days, up to a maximum of 2 years.
- All members listed on your membership must be travelling outside of Australia for the entire suspension period. and your membership must be suspended in full.
- You’ll need to provide evidence of your travel, showing your exit from Australia and arrival back in, such as e-tickets or a travel itinerary for all members listed on your policy.
- You need to have been a financial or paid-up member of Phoenix Health for at least 6 months prior to your departure date.
- Your premiums must be paid up to (or past) your departure date.
- Suspensions are not available to Extras only policies.
Suspending your membership can help you keep the benefits you’ve already built up, rather than losing them while you’re overseas.
Keep your waiting periods already served
Suspending your membership won’t affect any Hospital or Extras waiting periods you’ve already served. As long as you reactivate your membership within 30 days of returning to Australia, your waiting period status will remain the same as when you left.
A suspension ‘pauses’ your membership, so if you are within waiting periods when you suspend, the time you’re suspended won’t count towards your waiting periods either.
Protect your Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) status
If you hold Hospital cover, maintaining your continuous cover may be important for Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) purposes. Cancelling your membership could affect your LHC status, while suspension generally won’t.
Any days your membership is suspended won’t count towards your ‘Absent Days’, however they also won’t count towards ‘Paid Hospital Days’.
Understanding Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS) implications
As you don’t hold cover for your suspension period, in some cases, the Medicare Levy Surcharge may apply. It’s important that you understand if and how this will affect you. You should contact the ATO on 13 28 61 for more information.
No – you won’t be able to make any claims on your membership while you’re suspended.
You’ll need to complete an Overseas Suspension Form and return it to Phoenix Health for assessment prior to your departure from Australia.
Click here to download an Overseas Travel Suspension Form.
Contact Phoenix Health within 30 days of your suspension end date to re-activate your membership. If you haven’t already, you’ll also need to provide us with your travel proof (e-tickets or boarding passes), confirming the dates you departed and arrived back into Australia.
Once you’ve contacted us and we’ve received your travel proof, we’ll re-activate your membership from the day you returned to Australia.
If you don’t contact us within 30 days of your return, we may need to cancel your membership from the date it was suspended.
You may need to make a contribution payment on re-activation
On re-activation, a payment may be required to bring your contributions up to date.
If your membership isn’t paid up to date on re-activation, you won’t be able to claim benefits until your membership becomes financial again.
If your membership was paid in advance prior to your suspension, we’ll credit any premiums paid in advance to your membership on re-activation.
If your travel plans change, simply get in touch with us and we can update your suspension details. If you’ll be overseas longer than originally advised, you may be able to extend your suspension for up to 2 years from your departure date.
No. To suspend your membership when you’re overseas, all members listed on your policy must be travelling overseas for the entire suspension period.
If someone on your membership won’t be travelling, you won’t be able to suspend your membership.
No. Suspension of membership is only available when you hold a combined hospital and extras or a hospital only policy.
After your membership is re-activated from suspension, your membership will need to be active again for a minimum of 3 months before suspension is available again.
Your Australian private health insurance won’t cover you while you’re overseas, so we recommend arranging travel insurance for the duration of your trip.
Phoenix Health have partnered with PassportCard to offer members a 20% discount on travel insurance policies. Check out Travel Insurance for more details and to get a quote.
