MyMedicare is the new voluntary patient registration initiative recently announced by the Department of Health and Aged Care (DoHAC). Registration in MyMedicare is voluntary for patients, practices, and providers, and aims to strengthen the relationships between patients and their primary care teams.
MyMedicare is a hot topic, and information on items like patient eligibility criteria, and workflows for registration is expected to be available soon from DoHAC. Bp Software is closely monitoring this space, and we are committed to keeping you informed along this journey.
What Does MyMedicare Mean For Your Practice?
MyMedicare is progressing with staggered phasing for availability of benefits for your practice and your registered patients. Some key milestones that have been shared are:
- Practice registrations commenced 1st July 2023,
- Patient registration commences 1st October 2023,
- New MBS funding for registered patients for longer telehealth consults commences 1st November 2023,
- Restructured aged care incentives, chronic disease management, and funding for frequent hospital from mid-2024 onwards.
What Can I Do Now?
While some information is still to come, there are things that you can do today. You can confirm your practice’s eligibility, register providers for MyMedicare, and prepare for questions that patients may have right now.
Practices do not have to actively register with MyMedicare. A practice will be available for selection as the regular practice for a registering patient if some simple eligibility criteria available on DoHAC’s MyMedicare information page are met. If your practice fits the criteria, no other action is necessary.
Providers must be linked to your practice in the Organisation Register for patients to register with them. This Services Australia checklist walks you through the steps to ensure both your practice and providers are registered correctly in preparation for patient enrolments.
Patient eligibility criteria, and instructions for patient registration will be released by DoHAC closer to the 1st October date for registration commencement. It’s expected that to register with your practice, a patient must have visited two times in the last two years and hold a Medicare or DVA card.
In preparation for MyMedicare in October, you may wish to generate lists of patients who would benefit from MyMedicare registration, such as aged care residents, long telehealth consult users, frequent hospital visitors, and patients with chronic and complex conditions.
How Will Registration Work?
Patient registration commences on 1st October 2023, and is a key area where further information is expected to come soon. So far, it’s known that:
- Patients will be able to register through MyGov,
- Practices will be able to invite a patient to register through PRODA via the Medicare App,
- Paper registration forms will be available for patients to complete, and practices to submit through PRODA and retain,
- Confirmation of a patient’s registration will be visible as a document in My Health Record.
All registration methods will require consent from both parties: a practice must agree to the patient’s request, and the patient must agree to any invitation sent from a practice to register.
For More Information
We understand that MyMedicare is a very new initiative, and that new information and announcements can naturally bring questions. While there may be questions that we are unable to answer at this stage, Bp Software is committed to keeping you up to date with information, and resources that we create to support our practices as they are made available. Access the Bp Premier Knowledge Base, and search for ‘MyMedicare’ to find our resources at any time.
The following Department of Health and Aged Care resources provide more information about MyMedicare, and the upcoming changes regarding telehealth, aged care incentives, and chronic condition items:
Department of Health and Aged Care MyMedicare information page and eligibility
MyMedicare and Practice Registration Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)
Services Australia MyMedicare Overview multimedia (go to eLearning > MyMedicare – Overview)
DOHAC Checklist of Steps to Register for MyMedicare in the Organisation Register (PDF)
Authored by:
Jay Rose
Lead Content Developer at Best Practice Software
Explore our range of news and training resources:
Bp Learning Video Library | Bp Learning Training Options | Bp Newsroom Blog
Subscribe to Our Newsletters | Bp Learning Webinars