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Learn the relevant item descriptions, fact sheets and explanatory notes on the MBS Online website.
Medical practitioners can refer eligible patients with chronic conditions to allied health professionals. Allied health professionals can bill and claim Medicare benefits for some services.
For an allied health professional to bill and claim Medicare benefits for these services, they must do all of the following:
- be eligible to deliver the service
- bill for an eligible patient
- bill the services using the correct Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) item number
- give reports to the referring medical practitioner.
A medical practitioner must refer the patient.
Eligible patients can use 5 services per calendar year. The services can be either:
- one type of service, for example 5 physiotherapy services
- a combination of different types of services, for example one dietetic and 4 podiatry services.
Eligible allied health professionals and relevant MBS item numbers
These allied health professionals can provide services for the following item numbers:
- Aboriginal Health Workers or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners - item 10950
- Audiologists - item 10952
- Chiropractors - item 10964
- Diabetes educators - item 10951
- Dietitians - item 10954
- Exercise physiologists - item 10953
- Mental health workers - item 10956
- Occupational therapists - item 10958
- Osteopaths - item 10966
- Physiotherapists - item 10960
- Podiatrists - item 10962
- Psychologists - item 10968
- Speech pathologists - item 10970.
To claim these items the allied health professional must both:
- attend the appointment in-person for at least 20 minutes
- treat the patient face-to-face and not through group treatment.
Billing requirements
Patients are eligible for these allied health services if their medical practitioner has billed:
- GP chronic condition management plan (GPCCMP)
- GP face to face item 965, telehealth item 92029
- Prescribed medical practitioner face to face item 392, telehealth item 92060.
Patients with a GP management plan or team care arrangement in place before 1 July 2025 can continue to access services for those plans until 30 June 2027. Learn more about MBS online.
If the patient is a permanent resident of a residential aged care facility (RACF), their medical practitioner must have previously contributed to either:
- a multidisciplinary care plan prepared for them by the RACF
- a review of the care plan - item 232 or 731.
Hospital in-patients are not eligible for these services.