Medicare - Your Health 011-40000000

This document explains details about various Medicare services and administrative processes.

Government intent

Services Australia administers Medicare on behalf of the Department of Health and Aged Care. The Department of Health and Aged Care is responsible for developing Medicare policy.

Services Australia pays Medicare benefits in accordance with the legislation governing Medicare and has no discretion to pay benefits outside of this legislation.

The Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) is a Department of Health and Aged Care publication listing services that are subsidised by the Australian Government under Medicare.

Medicare usually covers:

free or subsidised treatment by health professionals such as doctors, specialists, optometrists and in specific circumstances dentists and other allied health professionals
free treatment and accommodation as a public Medicare patient in a public hospital
75% of the Medicare Schedule fee for services and procedures if a person is a private patient in a public or private hospital - this does not include hospital accommodation and items such as theatre fees and medicines
some health care services in certain countries

The Resources page has forms used by Service Officers.

Authenticating a Medicare customer

Perform telephone security check for Medicare health professionals

Power of Attorney, Guardianship, Administrative Orders and Authorised Representative for Medicare

Perform telephone security check for private health insurers in Medicare

Release of information for Medicare

Medicare fraud abuse and inappropriate practice

Consumer Directory Maintenance System (CDMS) for Medicare

Public Operations procedures for Medicare

Special Assistance Schemes and Disaster assistance in Medicare

Archiving and document retrieval for Medicare

Using Standard Letter Templates (SLT)