Please note that these changes DO NOT affect our privately billed patients.
Heathmont General Practice has avoided a fee increase for over 2 years. We have been able to bulk bill our pension card holders up until now, but due to the vastly increased running costs of a medical practice, combined with the 4 year freeze on medicare rebates, we will no longer be able to bulk bill all of our patients who hold a pension card from 1st May 2019. This will help ensure we can spend the adequate amount of time on consultations as to continue to provide a high quality of care to all of our patients.
We will continue to bulk bill our patients who are 75 years of age and over, or hold a DVA card.
For those of our patients with a pension card under the age of 75, there will be an consultation fee of $55 for a standard appointment, with a $17.40 out of pocket cost after claiming back your medicare rebate. This is reduced from our standard consultation fee of $75.
You will need to register your bank account details with Medicare.
If you do not have your bank details registered with Medicare, you will need to do this by going to your MyGov account or you can ring Medicare on 132 011 for help. We will process your claim at the time of payment and the rebate will be back into your nominated bank account overnight.
Payment is expected on the day of your consultation.
Please see your fee policy on display at reception for all other fees.
We recongnise that this change in our billing policy may cause difficulty for some patients, we feel this this the only option available to us moving forward. If you have any concerns about these changes, please discuss with your Doctor directly, or with the Practice Manager Kath Molnar.