You can set up a Medicare acting arrangement with Medicare in these situations:
- you have their power of attorney
- you’re their court appointed legal guardian or administrator
- you need to act for them because they can’t act for themselves.
Setting up a Medicare acting arrangement
The way you set up an acting arrangement depends on your situation.
If you have Power of Attorney or guardian and administration orders
If you have Power of Attorney (POA) or a court has made you the guardian or administrator for a person, you may be able to act for them with Medicare.
The POA or guardianship and administration order must show that you can act on their behalf for financial matters.
To act for someone, you need to give us the following:
- an original or certified copy of the POA document or guardianship and administration order
- the person’s Medicare number
- a copy of your identity document.
You can use any of these as your identification:
- Australian birth certificate
- Australian citizenship certificate
- Australian driver licence
- Valid Australian passport
- foreign passport with a current Australian visa
- ImmiCard.
You can take the documents to a service centre, or mail or email them to Medicare Enrolment Services.
If you need to act for someone because they can’t act for themselves
You can apply to be someone’s Medicare authorised representative if they can’t manage their own affairs because of a medical condition and you:
- don’t have their power of attorney
- are not appointed by a court as their legal guardian or administrator.
You must:
- be 18 or older
- be a close friend or relative of the person
- not have a paid job as their carer
- have evidence they can’t act for themselves, such as a medical certificate.
To apply, follow these steps.
- Fill in the authorisation to act on a person’s behalf form.
- Get the documents listed on the form, you need to support your application.
- Submit your form and supporting documents to us using the details on the form.
Cancelling a Medicare acting arrangement
You can cancel a Medicare acting arrangement by calling the Medicare program line.