Fees & Medicare Claims | yourhealthgriffith

Fees and Medicare Claims

Changes to Billing November 1st, 2023.

From November 1st, 2023, Your Health Griffith will again be bulk billing Aged Pension Card holders. There is no change to the fees that came into effect for private consultations 1st July, 2023. There is also no change to the bulk billing of children under age of 5 years, DVA Gold Cards and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We will also continue to bulk bill ALL patients for Chronic Disease Management plans, Health Assessments, Home Medication reviews, COVID vaccinations and recurring appointments for INR testing. Pension (other than Aged) and Healthcare Concession Card holders are offered discounted rates. We will reassess in the future whether this is a financially sustainable model..

Payment is expected at the time of the consultation. If there are any difficulties regarding this, please let reception know, so alternate arrangements can be made. EFTPOS, Credit Card (MasterCard and Visa), cash and cheques are all accepted. Direct bank transfer can also be arranged on request.

We hope for your understanding. Our priority is to continue to deliver the very best of medical care to our community, both now and for the future. To do that, we need a sustainable medical model and also, importantly, one that will be attractive to up-and-coming young doctors. We live in a time where there are not enough GPs in training to meet the need (not by a long shot!) and where nearly every town and practice is short and recruiting.

Please see below a table of fees as of the 1st of July 2023 including the Medicare rebate and the out-of-pocket gap.

If you have any questions please speak to the reception team at the time of your appointment. For a full list of fees including prescription repeats, long appointments and procedural consultations, please see the copy of our fee estimates that is available by clicking the link below:

Fee Estimates

Non-Attendances & Cancellations

We respectfully ask that if you are unable to attend your scheduled appointment you contact us to cancel or change your appointment time, with a minimum of 1 hour notice. This means that another patient can have this appointment and much needed treatment.

From the 1st July, 2023, Missed or cancelled appointments during normal business hours (8:00am – 6:00pm Monday to Friday) will incur a non-attendance fee of up to $30. Missed or cancelled appointments after 6:00pm on weekdays and any time on weekends will incur a fee of $50. Long appointments such as new patients, procedures and medicals will incur non-attendance fees from $50 depending on the length of the appointment. No part of this fee can be claimed back from Medicare.

This is a last resort but due to the increasing number of missed appointments this policy will now be strictly enforced (emergencies excluded). We hope that as we all work together with mutual respect, this will enable us to provide timely services to all of our valued patients.

Please ring our receptionists on (02) 69627661 to cancel your appointment or alternatively cancel your appointment at the time you receive your appointment reminder on HotDoc. SMS reminders are sent 24 hours prior to your appointment, however, if you have opted out or do not receive the message, it is still ultimately your responsibility to keep track of your appointments.

Consultations that attract a Private (Out of Pocket) Fee

Following consultations will be billed privately and may not attract a rebate from Medicare:

Patients who are not registered or do not have a current Medicare Card.
Worker's compensation, Motor Vehicle Accidents and related consultations (will be billed directly to insurance after the claim has been approved and claim number has been issued)
Pre-employment medical assessment and related investigations
Medicals for other purposes i.e. General, Insurance and Legal
Driver licence medicals (private and commercial)
Fitness to Drive Assessments
Services you request your clinician to perform without your attendance at a consultation (such as providing a script, referral or completing a form).
Phone consultations when you have not had a face-to-face consult in over 12 months.

Medicare Claims

For patient convenience Your Health Griffith has installed Medicare Easyclaim.

Medicare claims can be processed at the time of your consultation if you swipe your EFTPOS card. We will submit your claim to Medicare on your behalf and your refund will be deposited directly into the bank account attached to your EFTPOS card within minutes.

Please note, Medicare rebates cannot be made to a credit card account. If you do not want to swipe your EFTPOS card, you will need to register your bank details with Medicare to get electronic refunds directly deposited into your bank account. If you have not registered and do not swipe your EFTPOS card, you will need to submit the relevant information to Medicare to make a claim. You will need to submit this claim either at a Medicare branch or online.