From 1 July, GPs must retain evidence of patients assigning their Medicare benefit to the provider and keep it for two years.
A valid Assignment of Benefit (AoB) must be in place before bulk-billed claims are submitted to Medicare.
If Medicare rejects a claim and an MBS item number needs to be changed GPs will be required to seek a new AoB to ensure the patient’s agreement matches the revised service details.
If you use Tyro for Medicare Bulk Bill Easyclaim, you are already capturing evidence of the assignment through your terminal. While in this workflow, services are paid immediately, therefore, this option may not cater for clinics which complete an end-of-day reconciliation process before batching services to Medicare.
What can I do to prepare now?
- decide now how you’re going to implement this in your practice
- review your policies and processes, for example end of day billing “sign off” before batching
- start using a paper process now so your patients get used to assigning their benefit for bulk billing
- check your SMS ID is registered with the Australian Communications and Media Authority
- make sure your third-party products are ready and use and your communications channels and online booking notices
- educate your clinicians and make sure your patients are ready
Find out more
This article appeared in Practice Pulse on Wednesday, 10 June 2026. If you are a GP, practice nurse or practice manager in South Western Sydney and do not get the weekly Practice Pulse email, speak to your Practice Support Officer.