HSA are transferring their Irish business to HSF (Hospital Saturday Fund) from August

HSA are transferring their Irish business to HSF (Hospital Saturday Fund) from August 1st 2008.

Existing claims with HSA can be made until then.

Another blow to competition in the Irish health sector ?

Re: HSA are transferring their Irish business to HSF (Hospital Saturday Fund) from Au

Hi Redstar,
Thanks for the information.
Their website [broken link removed] is silent on the matter.
as is the hsf website [broken link removed] .
aj

Re: HSA are transferring their Irish business to HSF (Hospital Saturday Fund) from Au

Strangely silent websites indeed. I saw nothing in any of the newspapers either. I wonder does Mary Harney know ?

I got a letter from HSA and a nice combined HSA/HSF brochure explaining the move and implications for 'customers'.

Re: HSA are transferring their Irish business to HSF (Hospital Saturday Fund) from Au

To be frank, I could never see either any point or any value in the typical HSA or HSF "cash payout for time spent in hospital" products.

Re: HSA are transferring their Irish business to HSF (Hospital Saturday Fund) from Au

We found it useful. My wife stayed 11 days in hospital with my youngest son. and HSA paid out Euro60 for each day. We got a cheque for Euro 660.
My son requires a couple of days in hospital every year so this type of payment is handy for us, along with 50% back for GP and consultant visits. My employer pays the sub.

Agree, though that these plans don't suit everyone, especially if not expecting hospital or GP/consultant visits.

Re: HSA are transferring their Irish business to HSF (Hospital Saturday Fund) from Au

I've found it great for OH's back problems, like other posters have received money back for chiro, gp visits that VHI doesn't cover

Re: HSA are transferring their Irish business to HSF (Hospital Saturday Fund) from Au

If you have a young family (which in my case means more than average number of visits to GP and need for more prescriptions than individuals / couples) or if you wear glasses/contact lenses then HSF makes sense.

When considering joining a couple of years ago I sat down and looked at the various plans and their costs annually. Then I found the level of cover equivalent financially to either myself or DH changing glasses annually and this is the one level that we took.

We're on Scheme 550 - this costs €23.83 per month, so almost €286 annually. For this we get back 50% cost of Dental and Optical upto €290pa, €13 back on 10 GP/A&E visits in the year, €7 back on 4 prescriptions pa, 50% of cost of "practitioners" (physio, chiropracters, acupuncture homeopathy etc) upto €430 pa......and theres more, these are the only ones I use.

So with 2 active teenagers, a toddler and two adults I think you'll agree that it's good value for us.

HTH
D