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Before you can start claiming for your Hospital and Extras, you must be in your chosen cover for a set period of time, (known as a waiting period). nib customers can only claim benefits after they have served their waiting periods. This is necessary to keep health cover fair. Waiting periods protect existing customers who make payments to a fund over time, for when they might need health cover. If we didn’t have waiting periods, people might join a fund to claim for a planned item and then leave.
Hospital service |
Waiting Period |
| Accidental injury | 1 day |
| Ambulance Services | 1 day |
| Other services, except those listed | 2 months |
| Psychiatric care, rehabilitation or palliative care services (including pre-existing) | 2 months |
| Other pre-existing ailments/conditions (an illness or condition where evident at any time during the 6 months immediately prior to joining nib) | 12 months |
| Obstetric conditions | 12 months |
Note: your cover may exclude some of these procedures. You should also check if a Restriction or Benefit Limitations apply to your cover.
Extras service |
Waiting Period |
| Ambulance services | 1 day |
| All other services, except those listed below | 2 months |
| Optical appliances and repairs | 6 months |
| Healthier lifestyle | 6 months |
| Specialty dental (e.g. endodontia, periodontia) | 12 months |
| Removal of wisdom teeth and oral surgery | 12 months |
| Periodontic surgical, root therapy and endodontic services by a dentist not registered as a specialist | 12 months |
| Dentures, denture maintenance/repairs, other prosthodontic services | 12 months |
| Orthodontia | 12 months |
| Artificial aids (except orthotics and orthopaedic shoes) | 12 months |
| Hearing aids | 36 months |
Note: your cover may not include some of these Extras services.
