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

This document outlines information for Centrelink staff about the collection of a customer and/or their dependant's Medicare card number(s) upon request from Medicare.

Helping customers provide their Medicare card numbers

Step	Action
1	Determine if manual action required + Read more ... This process is almost completely automated. Manual action will occur when the customer: provides their Medicare card number is a remote customer, or contacts to provide or decline consent Medicare has requested Centrelink to collect the Medicare card number for a Centrelink customer and/or their dependent child/ren. Does the customer and/or child/ren have a current concessional entitlement to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)? Yes, go to Step 2 No, procedure ends here
2	Check for valid Medicare card number + Read more ... Is the customer’s current Medicare card number recorded through Identity Confirmation? Yes, go to Step 3 No, go to Step 6
3	Customer contact following letter issue + Read more ... The customer is sent a letter asking them to contact Centrelink if they do not consent to releasing their Medicare card number to Medicare. Has the customer contacted Centrelink in response to the consent letter? Yes, go to Step 5 No, go to Step 4
4	Passive consent - No response to letter + Read more ... Passive consent is automatically recorded and the Medicare card number is electronically passed to Medicare. Procedure ends here.
5	Manually update information + Read more ... Use the Medicare Details Update guided procedure or manually record consent or refusal of consent. Procedure ends here.
6	Check if customer lives in remote area + Read more ... Is the customer identified as a remote customer? Yes, see Remote community customers Medicare card number collection for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and Medicare Safety Net No, the customer is sent an automatically generated letter asking them to provide Centrelink with the necessary Medicare card number(s). Procedure ends here