Thousands of Aussies to pocket cash back in $215m in latest Medibank health insurance return

Thousands of Australians insured under Medibank are getting $50 back in their pockets under a $215m return to customers following the Covid-19 pandemic. All eligible customers will receive at least $50, though some could potentially get up to $360 back thanks to their level of coverage. “On average it will be around $55 for extras only policies and around $165 for hospital and extras policies,” Medibank said. All Medibank holders who have an active hospital and/or extras policy on June 30 will qualify for this cashback, which will be paid by the end of September. However, you must have also been a Medibank member with an active resident hospital and/or extras policy between January 1 and June 30, 2023. This does not include members with special coverage, such as ambulance-only cover or overseas cover. Those who are eligible do not need to do anything, as the money will be automatically sent over. Medibank chief customer officer Milosh Milisavljevic said the company hopes the money “will be welcome news” for people during the cost of living crisis. “This will bring the total amount of support Medibank has provided to customers to $1.37b through our COVID-19 give-back program, which is the largest give-back of any Australian health insurer,” he said. Medibank said they made a commitment to return claims made from the Covid-19 pandemic back to members, and have been providing yearly customer cash give back plans since 2020. “Since the start of the pandemic, our $1.37b financial support package has included the pause of premium increases, free days of cover and other member support options,” Medibank said. The news comes shortly after Russian man Aleksandr Ermakov was reportedly detained over cyber crimes. Ermakov was named as responsible for the 2022 Medibank hack, where more than 9 million customers had their personal details and health information stolen to be published and sold on the dark web. He was also linked with Russian hacking gang REvil, and was detained in Russia for unspecified cyber attacks. Following the hack, Medibank is expecting their cybercrimes costs such as IT and legal services to be between $30-$35m this financial year.