Private Hospital

An Agreement Hospital is a private hospital which has a contract with a health insurer to treat the insurer’s members for an agreed fee. This means members will pay either no Hospital Gap or a ‘known Hospital Gap’ (a set fee) for inpatient treatment at that hospital.  A Hospital Gap refers to the out-of-pocket costs you...

According to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s list of declared hospitals, there are 636 private hospitals, including day hospital facilities, in Australia as of February 2026.You can find a list on the healthdirect website.

Private hospitals are often perceived as expensive because, unlike public hospitals, they do not receive all their funding from the government. As a patient, you are charged for the treatments and services you receive. This is because private hospitals are run either as not-for-profit organisations or for-profit businesses. If you enter a private hospital, you may...

If you are a private hospital patient and the treatment you are receiving is listed on the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS), Medicare will cover 75% of the MBS fee for your doctors’ services.You have to pay the rest of the hospital and medical fees, which could include:If you have Hospital Cover for that treatment, you...

Some larger private hospitals have emergency departments.When deciding whether to go to a public or private emergency department, consider:

In Australia, private hospitals are owned and operated by private organisations. These include for-profit companies and not-for-profit organisations.The companies with the largest share of the private hospital market include:

In Australia, a private hospital is a hospital owned and operated by a private organisation but licensed and regulated by the state and territory governments.If you decide to be treated in a private hospital, you will have more choice about the treatment you receive and your accommodation because:You also have to pay for your treatment...

In this Guide, we provide an overview of how private hospitals operate in Australia.Private hospitals play an important role in the Australian Health System, especially for surgery that is classified as ‘elective’.If you need this type of surgery, it is sometimes hard to know whether you should use the public or private system.This Guide explains: