Change of gender for Medicare enrolments 011-44110020

Where a customer makes a request for Services Australia to amend their gender in CDMS:

• The Customer must provide supporting documents that meet evidence requirements, and
• Service Officers must sight and check evidence submitted to ensure it meets the necessary requirements, before making any change to the gender records

For help, contact Medicare and Aged Care - Local Peer Support (LPS).

A customer must provide one of the following forms of evidence to establish or update the gender on their personal record:

• Statement from a Registered Medical Practitioner or Registered Psychologist specifying their gender
• Valid Australian Government travel document, such as a valid passport, specifying their gender
• State or territory birth certificate specifying their gender
• A document from a state or territory Registrar of Birth Deaths and Marriages recognising a change of gender. For example, a Gender Recognition Certificate or Recognised Details Certificate

Note: if a New Zealand person cannot provide one of the approved documents, a New Zealand Government issued document is acceptable.

Services Australia recognises that gender is part of a person's social and personal identity and is progressively working to implement the Australian Government Guidelines on the Recognition of Sex and Gender.

Customers who identify their gender as being male or female can ask for a change to their records. It is acceptable to record the person's gender (male or female), in the Gender field in CDMS, subject to evidence received.

Note: where a person's gender has been recorded incorrectly in CDMS, see Amend a person's Medicare enrolment details.

Customers who are non-binary (X) can request, subject to evidence received:

• to be enrolled in Medicare with gender X
• a change to their existing gender record

However, Medicare's ICT systems cannot reflect their gender as non-binary (X) at this time. Systems are progressively being updated to include a non-binary (X) option. Until gender X is an available option in CDMS, Service Officers must:

• apply a gender identity Sensitive Information Indicator to record that the person is non-binary (X)
• tell the customer they must choose male or female to show on their record until the gender X option is available
• include a comment in CDMS

See the Process page for how to amend the customer's CDMS record.

Parents or legal guardians may request a change of gender for their child/ren up to the age of 14 years. Evidence is required to support the request and must meet the standards specified in Evidence of gender.

For individuals aged 15 years and older, the young person must make the request.

If a parent or guardian wishes to enrol their newborn as non-binary or intersex, see Newborn child enrolments in Medicare.

Service Officers who update customer records to reflect a gender change must make sure the gender identity Sensitive Information Indicator is applied.

When Service Officers see a gender identity Sensitive Information Indicator on a record, they should be aware:

• a person's sex and gender may not be the same
• of the need to address the customer by their appropriate name and title. As these actions can cause distress and offence to customers, Service Officers must avoid:
• misgendering (using incorrect personal pronouns), or
• 'deadnaming' (using previous names)
• customers may use a diverse range of pronouns. While pronouns cannot be recorded on the system, Service Officers should be mindful to use appropriate pronouns where the customer makes it known

Service Officers should not make judgements based on recorded names or a customer's tone of voice, and instead progress with the authentication of the customer as per Authenticating a Medicare customer.