Law Compliance Report - current edition - Report - Page 3
Commonwealth Update
Health Insurance Legislation Amendment (Assignment of Medicare
Bene昀椀ts) Act 2024 (Cth)
Health Insurance Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Bene昀椀ts and
Other Measures) Regulations 2025 (Cth)
On 1 July 2026, relevant parts of the Health Insurance Legislation
Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Bene昀椀ts) Act 2024 (Cth) (the
Amending Act) will amend the Health Insurance Act 1973 (Cth) (the
Act).
To coincide with the changes introduced by the Amending Act, the Health
Insurance Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Bene昀椀ts and Other Measures)
Regulations 2025 (Cth) (the Amending Regulations) will also amend the
Health Insurance Regulations 2018 (Cth) (the Regulations) on 1 July 2026.
What's new?
By way of background, the legal framework supporting
assignment of Medicare bene昀椀t processes has largely
remained the same since the mid-2000’s. Despite the
increased uptake of electronic payments, assignment of
Medicare bene昀椀ts has substantially remained paper-based
for bulk billing.
With a view to lessening the current administrative burden
for health providers, the changes introduced by the
Amending Act together with the Amending Regulations
harness digital technology and enable an assignment
of a Medicare bene昀椀t to occur before or after a service
is rendered. The Amending Act and the Amending
Regulations respectively will also:
introduce section 20AAA to the Act which will provide 3
new methods for simpli昀椀ed billing by assignment where
a service is provided as part of hospital treatment or
hospital-substitute treatment;
replace section 127 of the Act which contains
requirements for the assignor of a medicare bene昀椀t to
be given noti昀椀cations and information, and will create
offences to ensure eligible persons are able to review
information relating to the assignment of their bene昀椀t;
and
introduce section 127A of the Act which contains
new speci昀椀c record keeping requirements in relation
to assignment and claim of bene昀椀ts, which must
be retained for certain periods (as set out in the
Regulations).
August 2026 Edition | Law Compliance Report
Further Information
Bulk-billing assignments
On 1 July 2026, section 20A of the Act will be replaced
with a new section 20A to enable an assignment of a
Medicare bene昀椀t to be agreed to before or after the
service has been provided with effect from the latter. The
changes to be introduced to the Regulations establish that
to meet the requirements of the Act for bulk-billed services
an episodic (per service) agreement is required which can
be entered into, before or after a professional service is
rendered and must be in writing.
New regulation 65C speci昀椀es the data requirements that
must be met for an episodic agreement. Regulation 65C
requires the professional to ensure that the assignor is
given certain information in writing before or at the time
either party offers entry into an episodic agreement, and
such information includes for example:
the name of the person to whom the agreement service
is or will be rendered;
the date at which the agreement is proposed to be
entered into;
whether the agreement is an episodic pre-agreement or
an episodic post-agreement.
Simpli昀椀ed billing by assignment arrangements
New section 20AAA will be inserted in the Act on 1 July
2026 which will create the following 3 new methods for
3
