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When you bulk bill your patient, both of the following apply:
- you accept the Medicare benefit as full payment for the service
- your patient assigns their right to a Medicare benefit to you, so we pay the benefit to you.
You can’t bulk bill the following:
- any consumables used, including bandages and dressings
- record keeping fees
- a booking fee to be paid before each service
- an annual administration or registration fee.
Bulk billing and private billing together
If you provide a few services on a single occasion, you can both:
- bulk bill some or all of those services
- privately bill any you haven't bulk billed.
If you only bulk bill some of the services, you can charge an additional fee privately for other services.
Choosing to bill this way means you can set the charge.
You can only charge the additional fee if it relates to the service you're claiming.
If you provide two or more operations on the one occasion, all services must be either bulk billed or privately charged.
Bulk billing for nurse practitioners and midwives
Nurse practitioners or midwives, who provide an approved service, can bill the patient directly or bulk bill us.
If you’re an eligible nurse practitioner or midwife, you can access some items under the Medicare Benefits Schedule and limited items under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme on the PBS website.
Record keeping
We recommend keeping records of benefits paid for at least 2 years in case of an audit.
These include any of the following:
- electronic billing information
- notes in practice software
- appointment records
- assignment of benefit forms.