My Medicare

My Medicare is a new voluntary patient enrolment scheme that the federal government has created, to encourage greater continuity of care with your registered practice and improve health outcomes.

It will offer additional Medicare benefits to patients with a Medicare Card or Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) Veteran card.

You will only receive these additional benefits by registering your preferred clinic with Medicare.

No, there is no registration cost. It is a voluntary program to enrol in.

At The Cottage Surgery, we believe connection is the key to better health. We provide our patients with authentic, long-term continuity of care, because it leads to better health outcomes. Reinforcing this connection between patients and their GP is a good thing, and that’s why we are cautiously optimistic about the new MyMedicare initiative.

Benefits you will receive include:

• Greater continuity of care with your registered practice, improving health outcomes
• Longer Medicare Benefit Scheme (MBS) funded telehealth consultations with your GP
• Triple bulk billing incentive for longer MBS telehealth consultations for children under 16, pensioners, and concession card holders, from 1 November 2023
• More regular visits from your GP and better care planning for people living in a residential aged care home, from August 2024
• Connections to more appropriate care in general practice for people who visit hospital frequently, from 2025

 Please note those patients not enrolled in MyMedicare with The Cottage Surgery will pay full private fees, with concessional fees or bulk billing only available for enrolled patients who meet The Cottage Surgery’s concessional / bulk billing criteria.

We anticipate that these measures are the start of more to come, hence registering The Cottage Surgery as your preferred medical practice will be important to maximise your medical benefits.

If you would like to choose The Cottage Surgery as your preferred medical clinic, you will need to register with MyMedicare, select our medical practice and choose your preferred GP. Please refer to the registration instructions below.

Registrations are currently open – click here to register.

No, only one clinic may be registered per patient. Note that if you would like to change your preferred ‘home’ clinic, you can unregister, then re-register, at any time.

There are 3 ways to register in MyMedicare:

1. Start the registration process in your Medicare Online Account or Express Plus Medicare Mobile app.
2. The Cottage Surgery may start the registration in MyMedicare or you can ask them to do this. This will trigger a registration in your Medicare Online Account or Express Plus Medicare Mobile app, which you can then complete.
3. Complete a Registration Form and provide it to reception . By signing the form, you are giving consent to participate in MyMedicare. The Cottage Surgery staff will then complete the registration in the MyMedicare system.

Visit the Australian Government’s Department of Health and Aged Care website.