Hub Health Review

Bottom Line:

HubPass members benefit from fast service, free consultations, and delivery. One-off patients potentially face long waits. 

HubHealth Australia offers comprehensive telehealth services including consultations, referrals, prescriptions, and medication delivery. Focussing on prescription-based services, weight loss and men’s hair loss in particular, HubHealth is available on a monthly subscription, potentially significantly lowering the cost of accessing regular medication or medical certificates. NIB members receive a discount. 

Pros:

1. Appointments can be scheduled days in advance and members can have access to priority bookings. These VIP bookings offer 15 minutes priority consultations, similar to Qoctor. 

2. Monthly subscription (also available on Updoc, although as a three-tier pricing model) is cheaper than doctors’ consultations at some competitors. 

3. Medication delivery is included on the subscription, bringing down the cost of regular medications, such as Ozempic. 

Cons: 

1. The website is tricky to navigate and information can be hard to find. 

2. Medication available via Medicare is sometimes only privately available via HubHealth. 

3. Customer service takes a day or more to respond and does not always resolve requests.  

Comprehensive and Consultation-Based Services 

HubHealth’s comprehensive range of services includes telehealth consultations with doctors or nurse practitioners, medical certificates and prescriptions, similar to MedMate. All services require a call with a healthcare practitioner. Here is a more detailed list: 

Online Prescriptions: Prescriptions can be issued for a range of conditions. Repeat and new scripts are available. 

Blood Test Referrals: Blood tests, medical imaging, and referrals can also be requested during the consultation, according to HubHealth and NIB’s FAQs. This makes it a comprehensive telehealth service similar to PrimeMedic. 

Medication Delivery: Medication delivery can be booked to your home or work in discreet packaging for most prescriptions. It is delivered by Australia Post. 

Telehealth Consultation: Telehealth consults are available on a first-come first-serve basis or scheduled for when it suits you. It’s divided into general health, women’s health, men’s health, and skincare. The business focusses mostly on prescription-based solutions such as weight loss, hair loss, contraception, quitting smoking, herpes, and so on.  

Note: Both in its prescription-based focus on specific health conditions and the offering of discreet packaging, the provider resembles BurstHealth. Still, HubHealth offers much more comprehensive services and has consultations at its core. 

Longer Wait Times Than Competitors, Simple Pricing, and Cheap Membership Option 

HubHealth’s pricing is mid-range and uncomplicated for one-off bookings and very affordable on the monthly membership option, comparable to Updoc. It is cheaper for NIB members [4], similar to MedMate, which offers free access for BUPA and Allianz care members. 
 
The monthly hubPass membership costs $45 and includes free consultations and standard shipping as well as low-costs on medication and pharmacy purchases and VIP booking times for all consultations, similar to Qoctor’s priority booking service.  

One-off services cost: 

• Telehealth consultation and weight loss $49 
• Medical certificate $24.95 
• Scripts, contraception, and men’s hair loss $35 

Note: While HubHealth offers two booking options, to request an appointment with the first available doctor or schedule hours or days ahead, standard waiting times are several hours (between 8 am – 8 pm AEST only) and far exceed most competitors, such as PrimeMedic. (Although they can sometimes also be more prompt, of course.) 

Medication delivery usually takes one day. Only morning-after pill treatments are sent by same-day delivery, arriving in standard packaging from the pharmacy. 

Hard-to-Navigate and Counterintuitive 

• The site starts with two quizzes taking up most of the screen: weight loss and men’s hair loss, an unusual introduction to a comprehensive telehealth site. Customers also state that they booked specific appointments after being deemed eligible by the quiz and were then told by the physician that they were ineligible, with no refund offered [1].  
• HubHealth’s site is not easy to navigate. Most of the key information, like pricing, wait times, and process information, is either available in the FAQs or by navigating multiple pages. I ended up googling most questions instead to find the relevant pages. 
• While the booking process is sleek and well-designed, wait times are not available until after payment. Furthermore, the callback process does not always work well for patients, resulting in many one-star reviews in Trustpilot [1]. There is no timely access to customer service. 
• While HubHealth states that some customers receive callbacks within a few minutes, this may be reserved for VIP patients (monthly hubPass subscribers and NIB members). 
• While the site looks and feels very modern, it is more challenging to navigate than most similar telehealth sites, including PrimeMedic. The different menu options are hidden in various places. Much of the site's content focuses on its partners and reviews on ProductReview, which are split primarily between one-star and five-star [2].  

HubHealth’s website gives access to a very detailed privacy policy. It states that the company uses your personal information for marketing purposes, where allowed by Privacy Law. 

Your information is stored in encrypted and secure databases, and HubHealth “takes all reasonable steps to protect your personal information”. This includes security measures such as restricting access to your information, preventing unauthorized computer access, and regular technology reviews. 

By the Privacy Act, HubHealth also destroys or de-identifies your personal information when the service no longer needs it. 

As the company is part of a larger group, having recently been acquired by NIB [3], it may disclose your personal information to any of the group’s companies. According to the privacy policy, it may also share your details (with your consent) with partnering companies, e.g., for market research and marketing purposes. You may wish to check how to opt out by reading the fine print upon signing up.

Slow Customer Service Response 

HubHealth’s customer support is only available via webform or email and endeavours to get back within a day. The support is “typically available Monday to Friday 8 am to 5 pm AEST”, according to the website. This is very slow, vague, and limited support is offered other than on Midoc. 

Customer service does not always resolve customer requests, notably, not offering refunds when customers were deemed ineligible for treatment or rejected for prescriptions [1] and [2]. While this may be in line with HubHealth’s terms and conditions, it is unusual compared to other telehealth providers who tend to refund customers (although at the doctor’s or customer service’s discretion) whose needs they can’t accommodate, like DoctorsOnDemand. 

Best for Monthly Subscribers 

The low-cost monthly access to VIP bookings, free consultations, and medications is one of the main selling points for patients, especially those who require regular scripts and/or medical certificates and do not need physical assessments. This makes HubHealth a good choice for the two treatments it advertises at the top of its site: weight loss and men’s hair loss. 

One of the downsides is the potentially long wait for consultations as a one-off patient and a long wait for a response from the customer service team. 

All information on this page is independently researched and verified. Always conduct your own research to ensure you understand the provider’s pricing and terms and conditions. 
 
Telehealth is recommended in addition to primary care and cannot provide the same accuracy as in-person physical assessments by your GP. Consult your primary healthcare provider for comprehensive and personalised medical advice.  
 
Before embarking on long-term prescription-based plans, see your GP. 

[1] https://www.trustpilot.com/review/hub.health - 66% bad reviews (mostly 1-star)
[2] https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/hub-health
[3] https://www.businessnewsaustralia.com/articles/midnight-health-founders-look-to-exit-startup-as-insurer-nib-moves-to-full-control-of-startup.html
[4] https://hub.health/telehealth-nib/