Using your private health insurance

How to use your health insurance to get private medical treatment at a Spire hospital

Step 1
promo image

GP referral

You'll usually need to provide your insurer with a referral letter from your GP to make a claim.

Some insurers may allow you to self refer for certain treatments such as physiotherapy. Your insurer will tell you which conditions and treatments need a referral letter.

Step 2
promo image

Contact your insurer

Always contact your insurer before booking an appointment with us so they can pre-authorise your treatment. Your insurer will check that your policy covers you to see a consultant at a Spire hospital that suits you.

If you haven't been referred to a specific consultant, your insurer will provide a choice of consultants to pick from.

Step 3
promo image

Book a consultation

Contact the customer adviser team at your chosen Spire hospital to book an appointment. You'll need to provide your insurer details, pre-authorisation code and consultant name when you get in touch.

How to claim on your health insurance

Processing claims

Claims processes differ from insurer to insurer. Yours will guide you through their specific process. If your employer provides your insurance, you should follow the claims process specific to your scheme.

Sometimes your insurer needs a claim form for your GP to fill out. If your insurer needs a claim form you should:

  • Bring it with you when you attend your first outpatient appointment
  • Let the Spire patient administrator know if you have a claim form and it is already with your consultant, GP or insurance company
  • If you're being admitted for in-patient or day-case treatment, please hand your claim form to the patient administrator so that we can arrange for the medical section to be completed by your consultant
  • Make sure you've completed and signed the "patient/member" section on the claim form

Before you come into hospital

Gather the insurance details you’ll need to bring to your outpatient appointment:

  • Your policy documentation even if you have attended a Spire hospital before
  • Your insurance company name and scheme details
  • Your membership or policy number
  • Any confirmation of eligibility such as a pre-authorisation or claim reference number

If you can't provide full insurance details or if your insurance doesn't cover the full cost of your outpatient treatment, we'll ask you to pay any hospital charges on the day of your visit.

Payment process

For most patients, treatment costs are based on agreements with your insurer and payment will be made direct by your insurance company.

We charge for our hospital services such as nursing, use of our facilities, medical consumables etc. Our consultants - surgeons, anaesthetists and physicians - charge independently for their time and expertise.

To make things easier for you, we have direct settlement arrangements with the major UK insurance companies. Your insurer will normally settle your bills from your consultants and us directly. In order to do this we’ll need to know:

  • Your insurer
  • Your registration number
  • Your scale/level of cover
  • Your scheme details if you are insured under a company scheme
  • Your pre-authorisation number for your treatment

We’ll ask you for a swipe of your credit card when you register. This is to cover any insurance excess or shortfall your insurer is not liable to pay such as for sundry items. Your details will be kept securely for up to six months and we will notify you in advance if it’s necessary to use them.

In addition to any insurance excess or co-pay, sundry items may include:

  • Specialist equipment to aid recovery eg a wrist brace, crutches
  • Drugs to take home if they are not already included in your overall treatment arrangements
  • Personal expenses such as telephone calls, meals for visitors, newspapers.

Excesses and balances not covered by private health insurance

If you do not have sufficient cover or if there is an excess on your policy, your insurer will advise you of the outstanding payment due to the hospital. They will also notify us of your excess/out of cover charges and we will send an invoice to you advising of the balance to be processed against your debit or credit card.

Consultants may invoice to your home address and it may be necessary for you to forward bills to your insurer.

Billing queries

Our Customer Service team can help with any queries you have about your bill once you've had treatment. Find out more about understanding your bill.

Aviva
New customers: 0800 056 7654 
Existing customers: 0800 158 3333
www.aviva.co.uk/health

AXA Health
New customers: 0800 111 4004
Existing customers: 0800 454 080
www.axahealth.co.uk/personal/healthcare-products/

Bupa
New customers: 0800 600 500
Existing customers: 0345 609 0111
www.bupa.co.uk/health/health-insurance

Cigna
New customers: 01475 492 222
Existing customers: 0345 722 4462
www.cigna.co.uk

CS Healthcare (now part of Bupa)
New customers: 0800 917 4325
Existing customers: 020 8410 0400
www.cshealthcare.co.uk

The Exeter
New customers: 0300 123 3250
Existing customers: 0300 123 3200
www.the-exeter.com

General & Medical
New customers: 0800 980 4601
Existing customers: 0800 970 9442
www.generalandmedical.com

Healix
New customers: 0800 028 0849
Existing customers: 020 3819 7159
www.healix.com

inSpire Health Plan
New customers: 0333 443 2202
Existing customers: 0800 056 4864
https://inspire.spirehealthcare.com/

Police Mutual
Healthcare customers: 01543 441 630
www.policemutual.co.uk

Saga
New customers: 0800 015 0226
Existing customers: 0845 300 0867
www.saga.co.uk/health-insurance

Simplyhealth*
New and existing customers: 0800 294 6796
www.simplyhealth.co.uk

Vitality Health**
New customers: 0800 779 955
Existing customers: 0345 602 3523
www.vitalityhealth.co.uk

WPA
New customers: 0800 298 9588
Existing customers: 01823 625 000
www.wpa.org.uk

 

*Part of AXA **Previously PruHealth

If your insurance company is not listed above, please refer to your policy documents for the appropriate phone number.

Get in touch

20742
True
general

Marketing Information

Spire would like to provide you with marketing information about products and services offered by Spire and by selected third-party partners. If you do not consent for us to process your personal data for marketing activities, we will still be able to contact you about your enquiry.

We may contact you by email, SMS or phone about your enquiry. If we try to contact you by phone (mobile and/or landline) and you are not available, we may leave you a voicemail message. We may also use your details to contact you about patient surveys we use for improving our service or monitoring outcomes, which are not a form of marketing.

We will use your personal information to process your enquiry. For further information, please see our privacy policy.

Submit my enquiry

Featured articles

How does private healthcare work?

Step by step process for getting private medical treatment.

Read more
New to private healthcare

Ways to pay for private medical treatment

Getting a price and paying for private medical treatment can be done in several ways.

Read more
New to private healthcare

How to choose a consultant

Choosing a private healthcare consultant isn’t always easy. We look at considerations for this.

Read more
New to private healthcare