Printed receipts confirming payment of Medicare benefit 011-43010170

When a claim is processed face-to-face the Service Officer is required to print the confirmation of payment for the patient to sign. Until 2015/2016 these confirmations were printed using thermal roll receipts. The thermal receipts have now been replaced by a printed receipt. For some batched processed claims, thermal roll receipts may still be attached to the claim.

There is an office receipt, which must be printed and the claimant or authorised person must sign. Also available is a customer receipt which is not signed and mirrors the office receipt except for parts of the bank account details which have been removed for security purposes.

The printed receipt enables claimants to identify the:

• date of the service
• patient
• provider who rendered the service
• charge
• Medicare benefit received

When claimants receive their Medicare benefit the printed receipt provides full details of the transaction, including the:

• date the claim was made
• location the claim was made
• P number of the Service Officer who processed the claim
• Bank State Branch (BSB), account number and account name the payment was made into. Before the customer signs the receipt, the Service Officer must circle this information and have the customer confirm that these bank details are correct.
• full details about the service

Note: Medicare benefits for fully paid patient accounts can only be paid by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), funds are deposited into a nominated bank account. Where the claimant does not have valid EFT details stored in the Consumer Directory Maintenance System (CDMS) or cannot provide valid temporary or permanent EFT details at the time the claim is submitted, the BSB and account field will be blank and the payment for the claim will be held until EFT details have been provided.

When an EFT payment is paid into a bank account the claimant receives a limited amount of information on their bank statement. This information can vary, depending on the financial institution. An example may include:

• Date: date of deposit
• Description: DirectCR MCARE BENEFITS
• Deposit ($): dollar amount of benefit

Note: the printed customer receipt assists claimants to identify and reconcile the deposit.

If a claimant does not want the customer receipt, Service Officers must still print the office receipt and the claimant or authorised person must sign it.

Other ways a claimant can lodge a claim and not receive a receipt are:

• telephone claiming (receipt issued only on request)
• lodgement using a Medicare Claim form (MS014) (receipt issued only on request)

Note: patients are able to see their payment history on their Medicare online account.