PHI Networks: Tracking the Shifts in Health Fund–Hospital Contracting

Contracting between private health insurers and hospitals is one of those areas that can quietly reshape the health sector. A change in who’s under contract with whom can affect patient access, hospital revenues, and insurer competitiveness—yet these shifts are often hard to see until they’re well underway.

The PHI Networks Dashboard was built to give a clear, interactive view of those changes. It brings together contracting data from August 2020 through to July 2025, showing exactly what percentage of hospitals are under contract with each major health fund at any point in time.

The coverage includes representative funds from the major buying groups: Medibank Private, Bupa Pty Ltd, HBF, HCF, Honeysuckle Health (representing nib), Australian Unity (representing AHSA), and St Luke’s (representing ARHG). By tracking these side-by-side, it’s easy to see both long-term trends and short-term shifts in market relationships.

While the executive view gives you the big picture, the fund analysis tab lets you explore how each fund contracts over time, through five different lenses:

Ownership type — group vs independent hospitals 

Geographic region — major cities, inner regional, outer regional 

Second tier category — contracting status based on hospital tiering 

State — contracting patterns by state or territory Total — the overall contracting percentage over time.

This structure makes it possible to spot patterns you might otherwise miss. For example, a fund may be holding steady in the overall numbers but quietly losing ground in outer regional hospitals, or tightening contracts in specific sub-sectors like rehabilitation or psychiatric care.

Understanding these dynamics matters. Contract coverage can directly influence member choice, hospital capacity, and even the bargaining position of both insurers and providers.

With the PHI Networks Dashboard, you can track how those relationships are evolving, and where they might be heading next. Its's a tool designed not just for operational insight but also for strategic foresight—helping health fund managers, hospital executives, and industry analysts prepare for shifts before they hit the headlines.

If contracting activity is on your radar and you want to see exactly how the landscape is moving, we can walk you through it. Book a discovery call with our team, and we’ll show you how to navigate the dashboard, interpret the trends, and uncover the implications for your market.

Book your discovery call today