MyMedicare at HFGP
At Hills Family General Practice (HFGP), we value and respect each and every one of our loyal patients, many of whom are across multiple generations, who have formed a trusting relationship with us over the last 23 years. We would like to invite all of you, who consider us to be your usual practice, to register with us in MyMedicare.
What is MyMedicare?
MyMedicare is a new Commonwealth Government initiative. It is a voluntary registration system that allows you to formally register with us as your usual general practice and preferred GP. This registration aims to strengthen the relationship between you, your GP, and the team at HFGP in order to provide you continuity of care in order to improve your health and wellbeing.
Benefits to our patients include:
- Enhanced continuity of care and better information about our patients
- Availability of longer telephone appointments
- Online prescriptions and referrals for our regular patients
- Expanded bulk billing for some patients
- Urgent access and triage
- Confidence that HFGP is your trusted general practice and team
You can register with us by:
- Most preferably, apply online via the Medicare app or Medicare online website
- Apply via our customised manual smartform, or a downloadable paper form which you can give to our team at the practice in person or via email (mymedicare@hillsfamilygp.net.au)
- Respond to an online invitation we will send you via the Medicare app or website
Frequently asked questions
No matter your age, national and international research has shown that having a regular general practice and GP is important for your health and wellbeing. Finding a GP and practice that you trust, and formalising that relationship, is an important step that you can take to assist in helping you maintain your health and wellbeing. It encourages continuity of care. Our practice was the first in the country to be involved with research that has shown that regular interaction with general practices reduces hospital and emergency visits, as well as reducing readmissions to hospital.
Your feedback (from previous questionnaires) tells us that you want us to be informed of what happens to you in the health system when you don’t see us. You expect us to help coordinate and be involved in your care outside of the practice. Unfortunately, there is often a lack of information sharing amongst different health professionals caring for you. By embedding your choice into MyMedicare, registering with us provides a foundation to bridge this gap.
As your chosen general practice team, we will provide, build on and improve the following services to you:
If you choose to register with us, we will expand bulk billing to students aged between 16 and 21 years of age (inclusive) who are studying and not working full time. (Please note some proof of your education status may be required).
As detailed in our fees policy, the bulk bill incentive currently helps us continue to bulk bill eligible patients who have a health care card, pension card, those under 16 years of age, and commonwealth senior card holders.
Also, a reminder to all our registered patients to talk to us and let us know if you are experiencing financial difficulties, so that we can tailor our fees (or bulk bill) on an individual basis.
We know that you can’t predict when you become unwell. If you need an urgent appointment, please call us, speak to our reception and/or nursing team, and mention you are registered with us in MyMedicare. We will do our best to fit you in with one of our GPs or nurses as soon as possible, either in person or telehealth (where appropriate). We already do this for our regular patients, but registration will help us tailor this service to our registered patients.
A Medicare rebate for telephone consultations that last over 20 minutes is only available for patients who are registered with MyMedicare. Please note that these telephone consultations will be billed in accordance with our fees and billing policy.
The Commonwealth government has recently tripled the bulk bill incentive for long video and telephone appointments. This increase only applies to patients who fit bulk billing incentive eligibility and who are also registered patients. If you register with us and are eligible for the bulk billing incentive, we will continue to bulk bill you for these services.
As an extra service to our regular patients, we have set up a system that allows you to easily request repeat referrals or prescriptions. After a clinical assessment and acceptance of your request, a GP in the practice will call you for a short bulk billed telephone consultation to check and provide you with the referral or prescription. For more information, please visit our online ordering webpage. Over time, this service will only be available for our registered patients.
Registering in MyMedicare will help us better understand you, your needs, and help us better tailor our services to meet those needs. This includes providing us with information about patients who choose us, which will help us to target and focus our health check reminders and health promotion activities.
As your registered practice and nominated GP, our name will be visible on your My Health Record. Most people have a My Health Record but don’t use it very much. Over time, all pathology and test results done elsewhere will have to be uploaded to your My Health Record and be visible to you on your My Health Record App. This will help us collate and be informed about all your care so that we can coordinate care in a comprehensive fashion.
In the future, the Commonwealth Government will use registration with MyMedicare to provide incentives to us that will enable us to provide better and more services to you. This will include chronic disease management items linked into a patient’s registration to support continuity of care with chronic and complex conditions.
Registration is open from 1 October 2023.
There are essentially three ways to register with us.
- Most preferably, apply online via the Medicare app or Medicare online website
- Apply via our customised manual smartform, or a downloadable paper form which you can give to our team at the practice in person or via email (mymedicare@hillsfamilygp.net.au)
- Respond to an online invitation we will send you via the Medicare app or website
More information is available on the MyMedicare website.
To be eligible for registration, you must have had 2 in-person visits at our practice sometime in the last 2 years. If someone in your family is registered, you can register without meeting that requirement. Information about other exemptions for this requirement can be found on the MyMedicare website.
No. Registration is completely voluntary, and you can withdraw your registration at any time. When registering with us, you can see any of our GPs or nurses at any time, not just your nominated GP. Also, even if you are registered, you can still attend any other practice at any time, especially if we are closed.
No. You can only choose one practice to register with. Even if you registered with us, you can still attend any practice at any time.
No. Registration is completely free and the Commonwealth government is not paying HFGP for the registration.
Yes. Registration is optional and you can change registration at any time.
All information held by HFGP is private and held in accordance with our privacy policy. MyMedicare simply links you to our practice in the Medicare system, so that this link is visible to you and your other health care providers. As outlined in this fact sheet, MyMedicare does not hold any clinical information (unlike the My Health Record). It does not allow open access to the records we hold. Medicare already has information about you in relation to all the Medicare services you use – this does not change. You can read more about the MyMedicare Privacy here.
No. As a registered patient you can see any of the GPs in our practice, just like you can now. Ideally, seeing the same GP maintains continuity and helps you and your doctor get to know each other better. However we understand that this may not always be possible or convenient.
