Requesting Medicare card numbers from customers for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Medicare Safety Net 101-06100010

A request from Medicare will only occur when Medicare are unable to match their Medicare/Centrelink records. Centrelink's process of requesting Medicare card numbers for Medicare is almost completely automated.

When a request is received from Medicare, Centrelink performs a check to see if a valid Medicare card number is recorded for Identity Confirmation purposes. If a valid number is recorded, a passive consent letter is sent to the customer asking them to contact only if they do not wish their Medicare number to be released to Medicare. If a response is not received from the customer within 14 days, passive consent is recorded and the number is sent to Medicare.

Check if the customer lives in a remote area if one of the following applies:

• no Medicare card number recorded on Identity Confirmation
• an invalid Medicare card number recorded, or
• Medicare has been unable to match their Centrelink/Medicare record

If this is the case, no letter is sent. Instead, an online document is automatically recorded on the Centrelink computer system that will enable an Indigenous Service Officer (ISO) to identify customers in their region for whom the Medicare card number needs to be collected (that is, Indigenous and non-Indigenous customers).

Where the customer does not live in a remote area and either an invalid Medicare number or no Medicare number has been recorded, an automatically generated letter requesting the customer to complete and return their Medicare number and that of any concessionally entitled dependants will be issued. When this number has been provided to Centrelink, it will be manually recorded on the Centrelink computer system.

Note: an individual's Medicare number can also be used for establishing a link with the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR).