My Medicare Information
What is MyMedicare?
MyMedicare is a new voluntary patient registration model. It aims to formalise the relationship between patients, their general practice, general practitioner and primary care teams.
It is as part of the federal governments ongoing commitment to strengthening Medicare for all Australians, so seeing your GP regularly and formalising the relationship you have with your GP and practice t
hrough MyMedicare can lead to better health outcomes.
To register as a MyMedicare patient, you can start the registration process in your Medicare Online Account or Express Plus Medicare Mobile app. Practice staff will then complete the registration in the MyMedicare system.
By registering as a patient, additional funding becomes available to your healthcare provider to deliver the care you need. MyMedicare patients may have access to:
• A formalised ongoing relationship with your general practice and preferred GP, which has been shown to improve health outcomes.
• Longer MBS-funded telephone consultations with your usual general practice, from 1 November 2023.
• Longer bulk billed telehealth consultations for children under 16 and Commonwealth concession card holders, at the new triple bulk billing rate, from 1 November 2023.
• More regular visits from their GP and better care planning for people living in a residential aged care home, from August 2024.
• Connections to more appropriate care in general practice for people with chronic conditions who visit hospital frequently, from mid-2024.
It’s voluntary and free to register in MyMedicare, and registration is open to Australians with a Medicare card or Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) Veteran Card.
To register, you must have had 2 face-to-face appointments with the same practice in the previous 24 months. This is reduced to one face-to-face appointment if you are in a remote location.
People who are facing hardship are exempt from all eligibility requirements, including people experiencing domestic and family violence and homelessness.
Your chosen practice must be registered in MyMedicare before you can commence your own patient registration. If you hold both a DVA Veteran Card and a Medicare card, you
can register with either. If you want to register in MyMedicare with a DVA Veteran Card, you’ll need to fill out a registration form in your practice.
WMyMedicare does not tie you to a particular GP – you can change your preferred GP within your registered practice at any time. You can also register with a new practice if you meet the eligibility requirements and the practice is already registered in MyMedicare.
MyMedicare is a registration system and won’t hold any of your clinical health information. Your clinical health information will continue to be stored in your My Health Record, if you have one. All personal information recorded in MyMedicare, including your chosen health care providers, will be kept secure and your privacy will be maintained. Read the MyMedicare Privacy Notice at health.gov.au/mymedicare-privacy for further information.
Talk to your regular general practice or GP about registering in MyMedicare, or find out more at health.gov.au/mymedicare