Western Australia ambulance information

An ambulance is road vehicle, boat or aircraft operated by a service approved by Medibank and equipped for the transport and/or paramedical treatment of a person requiring medical attention.

Any ambulance called via 000 or by the hospital or other approved facility is an approved ambulance provider.

We don’t pay benefits:

• When you are transferred by ambulance between public hospital facilities while you are an admitted patient.
• For ambulance transfers once you have been discharged from hospital.
• When you are transferred to another hospital for treatment at the request of the admitting hospital because they do not have the medical facilities available to treat you (the admitting hospital may pay for this service).
• When you’re aged 65 or over and live in Western Australia, since you are eligible for free or subsidised ambulance services. However, if you’re eligible for subsidised services, you may be able to claim the remaining cost from Medibank.

Where the State scheme allows, here are some other situations you can claim for:

• You’re an admitted patient in hospital, and the hospital requires you to be transferred from one hospital to another. (Note that this doesn’t include transfers between public hospitals.)
• The air ambulance provider has received pre-approval from Medibank to provide transport by air ambulance.
• A member is transported by ambulance to a hospital or other approved facility immediately following their death.

An “other approved facility” must be capable of providing immediate professional medical attention, like a medical centre or clinics. It doesn’t need to be closer than the nearest hospital or in a rural area.

We don’t keep a list of these facilities and assess whether one is an “other approved facility” on a case-by-case basis.