MyHealthPlus Prior Authorisation: How It Works

If you’re looking up how MyHealthPlus prior authorisation works, you probably have a hospital admission, day surgery, or a dialysis session coming up — and you don’t want a surprise bill. Here’s how MyHealthPlus prior authorisation actually works, in practical terms.

What MyHealthPlus actually is

MyHealthPlus is the rider that sits on top of a MyShield Integrated Shield Plan, covering the deductible and co-insurance your main plan leaves you to pay. It was originally an Aviva product. Aviva Singapore and Singlife merged in 2023, so if you hold MyShield or MyHealthPlus, your policy is now administered under the Singlife brand — the coverage itself didn’t disappear, only the name on the letterhead changed. If a Singlife representative reaches out about your policy, that’s the expected continuation of your Aviva cover, not a red flag.

MyHealthPlus prior authorisation, in plain terms

Prior authorisation is your insurer’s agreement, given before your treatment, to cover it based on your policy terms and the medical information your doctor submits. For planned, non-emergency treatment — including recurring treatment like dialysis — you’re generally expected to have this approval in hand before you’re admitted or start the session, not after.

Skipping it doesn’t necessarily mean the claim is refused outright, but it commonly means a higher co-insurance share, and on some plans it can void the annual co-payment cap that would otherwise limit how much you pay out of pocket in a bad year. For an ongoing treatment like dialysis, that gap can repeat every cycle, which is what makes getting authorisation sorted upfront worth the extra step.

What to actually do

Your treating doctor or hospital typically submits the authorisation request on your behalf, so the first step is simply telling them you’re on a MyShield/MyHealthPlus plan (now under Singlife) early enough — most insurers ask for several working days’ notice before a planned admission. If you’re unsure whether a specific authorisation has gone through, Singlife’s policyholder service line can confirm the status directly against your policy, which is faster than guessing from the brochure.

Related reading: What’s happening to my IP Hospital Shield plan, again?! — Shield plan rules keep shifting, and pre-authorisation requirements are one of the areas that’s gotten more complex over the past few years.

If you’d rather have someone sanity-check your Shield plan and riders instead of piecing it together from FAQs, get in touch and I’ll go through it with you.