Medicare benefit tax statements 011-43160000

A Medicare benefit tax statement is a listing of medical charges and Medicare benefits paid to those listed on a nominated Medicare card in a particular financial year. The statements were to assist customers to claim the net medical expenses tax offset (NMETO).

On 14 May 2013, the government announced in the 2013-14 Budget the NMETO will be phased out and would not be claimable from the 2015-16 financial year.

Taxpayers who received the offset in their 2012-13 income tax assessment were eligible to claim the offset for the 2013-14 income year (if they had eligible out-of-pocket medical expenses above the relevant claim threshold). Similarly, those who received the tax offset in their 2013-14 income tax assessment were eligible to claim the offset in 2014-15 (the last year the NMETO could be claimed).

Medicare benefit tax statements for financial years before 1 July 2015 may still be required for customers to claim NMETO from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) but is restricted as Medicare claims history is culled. Customers can only request Medicare benefit tax statements for the following financial years: 2012-13, 2013- 14 and 2014-15. This request is made via an email to Release of Information. The Resources page contains a link to contact details.

Requests received must be authorised by a delegate of Chief Executive Medicare before being processed. Information will only be released in accordance with legislation. See Release of information for Medicare for more information.

Customer enquiries about NMETO should be directed to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on 132 861.

The Resources page contains a link to the Request for a Medicare History Statement form.

Services for simplified billing and bulk billing are not listed on the Medicare benefit tax statement, as the patient has not incurred an out of pocket expense.

The Medicare benefit tax statement does not contain:

• details of any bulk bill claims (payee code 6)
• details of in-hospital claims made to Medicare via the Simplified Billing claiming channel (payee code 8) as billing agents and health funds issue separate statements reporting financial details of in-hospital care
• miscellaneous items, Note: Service Officers must not record any details of miscellaneous items appearing on an account or receipt
• rejected items that are not rejected with reason codes (RSN) 108, 127, 159, 160, 164, 170, 171, 179, 206, 215, 232, 233, 236
• rejected items that are not rejected with restated lines:
• 816 (underpayment of benefit previously paid)
• 818 (overpayment of benefit previously paid) or
• 821 (no change to benefit previously paid)