The Health Insurance Act 1973 and the Dental Benefits Act 2008 have been amended to enact this change.
This change applies to all paper-based and electronic claims for bulk billed Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and Child Dental Benefits Schedule (CDBS) services. A bulk billed service is when a patient agrees to assign their Medicare benefit to a health professional as full payment for a complete medical service. The health professional submits the claim and receives the benefit directly from Services Australia. The patient incurs no out-of-pocket costs.
Bulk billed services rendered:
- on or after 5 September 2025 may be automatically paid if claimed up to 1 year from the date of service
- before 5 September 2025 may be automatically paid if claimed up to 2 years from the date of service.
Existing arrangements to make application for late lodgement of claims outside of the allowable timeframe remain in place.
As most claims for bulk billed services are already made within 1 year, this change will have minimal impact on providers of bulk billed services. This change will not impact patients.