MyMedicare is a voluntary registration system designed to improve healthcare delivery and patient experiences. It allows individuals to choose their preferred general or nurse practitioner and healthcare team. 

By registering with MyMedicare, patients and practices can access a range of benefits, including longer MBS-funded telephone calls, triple bulk billing incentives for telehealth consultations, and tailored care for complex chronic diseases. 

MyMedicare promotes stronger relationships between patients and their care teams, supporting person-centred care and reducing hospitalisations. It will be integrated with the My Health Record, facilitating effective communication and collaboration among healthcare providers.

Benefits for your practice

• MyMedicare integration with the My Health Record, allows hospitals and other health providers to communicate with a patient's regular GP easily.
• More information about regular patients makes it easier to tailor services to fit their needs. 
• Blended funding payments are available through MyMedicare to support primary care providers keep registered patients with complex chronic disease out of hospital. 
• The new General Practice in Aged Care incentive supports GPs providing regular visits, health assessments and care plans for people living in residential aged care homes.  
• Chronic Condition Management items linked to a patient’s registration in MyMedicare from July 2025, to support continuity of care for people with chronic and complex conditions. Patients who are not registered in MyMedicare will still be able to receive Chronic Condition Management items from their usual GP.

Benefits for your patients

• Greater continuity of care with their registered practice, improving health outcomes 
• Registered patients will have access to longer MBS-funded telephone calls (Levels C and D) with their usual GP, promoting better accessibility and quality of care.
• Triple bulk billing incentives for longer MBS telehealth consultations (Levels C, D, and E) will be available for children under 16, pensioners and other Commonwealth concession card holders registered with their general practice.

To read about MyMedicare eligibility, please visit the Department of Health and Aged Care.

• Access to levels C and D telephone consultations for registered patients.
• Access to triple bulk billing incentive for levels C, D and E (video only) telehealth consultations for registered patients under 16 years and Commonwealth concession card holders.
• Removal of red tape for telehealth: no need to meet the 12-month rule for registered patients.

New incentives for GPs to provide quality continuity of care to people who frequently attend hospital because of complex chronic disease. The aim is to reduce the likelihood of further admissions through enhanced general practice support.

This initiative will be trialled in 9 primary health network catchments – yet to be announced – after which it will be progressively introduced over 3 years across the country.

• From 1 August 2024, GPs and practices registered in MyMedicare will receive incentives for providing their registered patients who permanently live in a residential aged care home (RACH) with proactive face-to-face visits, regular planned reviews, and coordinated care planning, improving continuity of care and reducing avoidable hospitalisations.
• RACH residents will be required to be registered in MyMedicare and the GP linked to the patient’s registered practice for GPs to access this incentive.
• This incentive, to be known as the General Practice in Aged Care Incentive (GPACI) will replace the GP Aged Care Access Incentive from 1 August 2024.
• The new incentive will be a combined service incentive payment (SIP) and practice incentive payment (PIP), 
• Payments are $300 per patient, per year, paid to the responsible provider and $130 per patient, per year, paid to the practice.
• The current cap of $10,000 per GP will be removed.
• PHNs will be funded to work with RACHs to match residents with a regular primary care provider in MyMedicare, if they do not already have one.

Subject to the passage of legislation, from 1 July 2025:

• Items for GP management plans (229, 721, 92024, 92055), team care arrangements (230, 723, 92025, 92056) and reviews (233, 732, 920278, 92059) will cease and be replaced with a new streamlined GP chronic condition management plan
• Chronic condition management items will be linked to a patient’s registration in MyMedicare to support continuity of care
• Patients who are not registered will still be able to receive these items from their usual GP.

Additional patient cohorts are expected to be incentivised through MyMedicare in 2025 and beyond. For example: patients experiencing mental ill health, and patients in the first 2000 days of life.

- Provide Medicare-funded services.

- Be accredited against the National General Practice Accreditation Scheme. Non-accredited practices will have 12 months to register with an accreditation agency and gain accreditation.

- Be registered in:

• Provider Digital Access (PRODA)
• Health Professional Online Services (HPOS)

- Be linked to the Organisational Register (in HPOS) with one eligible provider linked to the practice.

• Note – if your practice is already registered and all participating providers are linked in the Organisation Register, you do not need to complete a second registration process.

- Please note, the definition of a general practice eligibility to become RACGP accredited, has changed to include some non-traditional general practices. This change enables more non-traditional practices to register with MyMedicare. Please refer to this guide to check if your non-traditional general practice is now eligible.

- An accreditation exemption is available until 30 June 2025 for non-accredited practices (including sole providers) who deliver general practice services through mobile and outreach models:

• in rural settings
• in residential aged care
• in disability residential settings
• to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients
• to people experiencing homelessness.

Patients can register for MyMedicare from 1 October 2023.

• Patients can commence the registration process in their Medicare online services (Medicare Online Account or the Express Plus Medicare mobile application) and the practice staff can then accept or decline the registration in MyMedicare.
• Practice staff can start the patient registration process in MyMedicare. The patient will then complete and provide consent for the registration in their Medicare online services.
• Patients can fill out a registration form at the practice (or provided by their visiting GP) and sign the form to provide consent. The practice will then enter the patient’s registration details into the MyMedicare system to complete the registration.
• MyMedicare: “About You” Voluntary Patient Information - from the 6 April 2024, the Department of Health and Aged Care will introduce the ability for patients to provide additional information about themselves as part of their MyMedicare registration, should they choose to. Read more about the MyMedicare "About You" Update here. 

The Department of Health and Aged Care have released a GP Communication toolkit to help you engage with your patients about MyMedicare and answer questions they may have. The toolkit includes promotional material such as posters, suggested social media posts and newsletter content. SEMPHN has also provided a Key messages for staff and patients document to assist general practices in answering patient enquiries and support registration.