"Billing after almost 2 years"

I was hospitalized in North Canberra hospital in 2024 for about 7 days.

I was asked to sign documentation after the ED staff had already administered narcotic medications.

After 5 days I was told that I could have been moved to the private section of North Canberra hospital because I am not eligible for Medicare and have OVHC. I asked the doctors how can they justify to keep me in hospital for so long if they can't tell me the cost of the treatment. Thereafter they had someone from the accounts department phone me and say they can't tell me either what my bills will amount to.

I told the doctors they need to decide when they are going to discharge me because of the financial problem they are leaving me in.

It took them another 2 days to discharge me.

I started receiving bills from the hospital shortly after I was discharged.

Some months had passed and I kept receiving bills every few months.

I thought the billing was all done and had since moved to WA. 

But to my surprise I received a bill in the mail, at my new WA address, February 2026. That is almost 2 years after the fact.

There is nothing preventing the hospital to send bills years after the fact, and they can threaten non-payers with reporting them to the Home Affairs office, which would jeopardize my standing as a visa holder.