The newly privatised Australian firm Medibank Private has started flexing its muscles, leaning on hospital providers to lower their charges in a tough market for insurers.
The insurer has also begun trials with GPs to expand their services beyond basic consultations to offer more sophisticated treatment, in the hope of keeping patients out of hospital and therefore cutting the insurers' costs.
The moves come as Medibank missed its revenue growth and revenue per customer forecasts in its half year earnings, the first released since it listed on the share market.
Medibank is Australia's largest private health insurer with about 29 per cent of the market, and increased its customer base to 3.9 million as of the end of December.
Rising healthcare costs are hurting the industry, Medibank said, pushing cash-strapped customers to downgrade their insurance or move to other providers.
