The Albanese Government is laying the foundations for a stronger Medicare, with the new MyMedicare program open to patient registration from 1 October 2023.
MyMedicare is the foundation upon which a stronger, more personalised Medicare will be built, with patients to get more tailored quality care from their regular general practice, doctor and primary care team.
From 1 October, all patients with a Medicare card or Veteran Card are now able to register with their participating general practice to get better continuity of care and access to longer telehealth consultations.
At the moment, telehealth is restricted to patients who have seen their GP face-to-face at least twice in a 24-month period.
When a patient registers with their preferred GP through MyMedicare, that restriction is removed for longer consults of 20 minutes or more. So, patients can get longer, more comprehensive care from their regular GP, when and where they need it, without the restrictions of having seen them face-to-face recently.
From next year, general practices will also begin to access funding packages to help in tailoring their care to patients from priority groups who register with them through MyMedicare, like frequent hospital users and aged care residents.
Provider registration through Services Australia became available on 1 July and is open to accredited general practices, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, Aboriginal Medical Services and mobile and outreach practices.
Around 2,600 practices have registered with MyMedicare, accounting for nearly 40% of the 6,500 practices around Australia, with hundreds more joining every week.
MyMedicare delivers on a recommendation of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce to introduce a system of voluntary patient registration to support continuity of care and better health outcomes.
The Albanese Government’s 2023-24 Budget invested $276.3 million over four years to set up MyMedicare and deliver the first range of tailored funding packages for GPs to support aged care residents and frequent hospital users with comprehensive, team-based care out in the community.
