Medicare Assignment of Benefit Consent Requirements from 1 July 2026: What Health Practices Should Update

Medicare billing compliance

Medicare assignment of benefit consent requirements changed on 1 July 2026 for health professionals who bulk bill and for private hospital and hospital-substitute treatment claimed through simplified billing arrangements. The change affects medical practices, hospitals, private health insurers, approved billing agents and software vendors that support Medicare claiming workflows.

The immediate compliance task is practical. Providers should check how patient consent is obtained, what information is shown before consent is given, who can give consent, how the consent record is stored and whether the billing system can produce records for a Services Australia or Department of Health compliance review.

This article explains the 1 July 2026 changes at a business-process level. It does not replace the prescribed forms, templates or current government guidance that apply to a particular billing pathway.

Short answer

From 1 July 2026, assignment of benefit for Medicare bulk billed services can be completed before or after the service, electronically or on paper, and the provider must keep a copy of the agreement for 2 years from the date the claim is made. Services Australia says the old patient unable to sign notation is no longer acceptable.

For bulk billing, the government has also announced a 12-month transition period from 1 July 2026, including temporary verbal assignment arrangements and enduring assignment options for eligible patients. The transition does not defer the new simplified billing requirements for privately insured hospital and hospital-substitute treatment, which started on 1 July 2026.

Why assignment of benefit matters

A Medicare benefit is payable to the patient or other entitled person unless it is validly assigned. In a bulk billing context, the patient assigns the Medicare benefit to the servicing provider as full payment for the service. In simplified billing, privately insured patients may assign their Medicare benefit to a private health insurer or approved billing agent so Medicare and private health insurance benefits can be processed together.

For a clinic, the assignment record is evidence that the provider was entitled to claim and receive the Medicare benefit. If the assignment is missing, incomplete or inconsistent with the claim, the issue can become an audit, repayment or workflow problem rather than a minor form error.

What changed on 1 July 2026

Services Australia identifies several changes to the assignment of benefit policy and process from 1 July 2026. The main operational changes for bulk billing are:

assignment may occur before or after the service is rendered;
assignment may be electronic or on paper;
an approved Services Australia assignment form is no longer mandatory, although the agreement must include required information set out in the Health Insurance Regulations 2018;
eligible patients may use enduring assignment agreements for ongoing bulk billed GP services;
providers must retain a copy of the assignment agreement for 2 years from the date the claim is made; and
the notation patient unable to sign is no longer acceptable for bulk bill claims submitted after 1 July 2026.

The change gives practices more choice about process design. It also places more responsibility on the practice or software workflow to capture the required information and keep a retrievable record.

Who is affected

The changes are relevant to any business that designs, administers or relies on Medicare assignment workflows. That includes:

general practices and specialist practices that bulk bill;
diagnostic imaging and pathology providers;
hospitals and day hospitals;
medical specialists providing services to privately insured admitted patients;

private health insurers and approved billing agents involved in simplified billing;
practice management software and claiming software vendors; and
corporate health groups that standardise billing workflows across multiple sites.

Responsible people within those organisations should treat the change as a billing, technology, privacy and contract issue. The consent process usually touches patient communications, booking tools, Medicare claiming, privacy controls, document retention, staff training and contract allocation of responsibility between the provider and any software or billing service.

Bulk billing transition arrangements

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and Services Australia have announced a 12-month transition period from 1 July 2026 for bulk billing assignment requirements. During that period, regulatory amendments are being progressed to support verbal assignment of benefit for all bulk billed services. Services Australia guidance also says verbal assignment is a temporary measure.

Where verbal agreement is used, Services Australia says the provider must explain how the patient signature field will be completed, confirm the patient agrees, type assignor verbally agreed in the assignor signature field and send the completed form electronically to the patient. A copy must still be kept for 2 years.

Practical point

The transition period should be used to test and improve consent workflows, not to pause implementation. Practices with reliable digital or paper consent processes should continue moving away from temporary verbal pathways.

Enduring assignment for eligible GP patients

From 1 July 2026, eligible patients can provide consent for ongoing bulk billed GP services through an enduring assignment, where offered and where the patient falls within an eligible category.

Services Australia identifies three main eligible groups:

A patient registered with MyMedicare may make one enduring agreement for services from all general practitioners at their MyMedicare practice.
A patient of an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation or Aboriginal Medical Service may make an enduring agreement with the ACCHO or AMS, and may have multiple agreements with multiple ACCHOs or AMSs.
A patient living in a residential aged care home may make multiple enduring agreements with different practitioners.

If an enduring agreement is entered into before 30 June 2027, Services Australia says it will remain in place for 12 months. Practices using enduring assignment should keep a copy for audit purposes and make sure the patient category, practice relationship and scope of services are recorded accurately.

Simplified billing requirements started on 1 July 2026

The bulk billing transition arrangements do not defer the simplified billing changes. The Department of Health states that the legislative requirements for privately insured services claimed as part of hospital and hospital-substitute treatment started on 1 July 2026.

That distinction matters for hospitals, private health insurers, approved billing agents and specialists who rely on simplified billing pathways. A business that operates across both bulk billing and simplified billing should maintain separate implementation notes for each pathway. The legal source, assignment pathway, consent timing and record obligations may differ.

What practices should update now

Health businesses should work through the consent process from the patient’s first interaction with the practice through to claim submission and audit retrieval.

Area	Priority	What to check
Consent capture	High priority	Confirm whether assignment is obtained before the service, after the service, through Easyclaim, through a digital booking workflow, through a paper form, through an enduring agreement or, during the transition period, verbally.
Required information	High priority	Check that the agreement includes the prescribed information and that any practice-created form, SMS link, booking portal or email process matches current government templates or guidance.
Audit record	High priority	Confirm that the final agreement can be retrieved for 2 years from the date the claim is made, including where the patient consented through a booking tool or third-party software.
Responsible person workflows	Medium priority	Train staff on who can sign or accept an assignment on behalf of a patient, and who cannot.
Software and billing contracts	Medium priority	Check which party is responsible for maintaining templates, recording consent events, storing evidence and responding to audit requests.
Patient-facing copy	Lower priority	Update patient emails, SMS text, reception scripts and website copy so they explain the assignment process accurately without overstating what the patient is being asked to approve.

Implementation checklist

A health practice or billing organisation should be able to answer these questions:

Which services use bulk billing, simplified billing or both?
Which assignment pathway applies to each service type?
Is consent obtained before or after the service?
Is the agreement electronic, paper, Easyclaim, enduring or verbal during the transition period?
Does the agreement contain the required information?
Who can provide consent if the patient is not the assignor or cannot complete the agreement?
Where is the agreement stored?
Can the business retrieve the agreement for 2 years from the claim date?
Have staff been trained not to use patient unable to sign after 1 July 2026?
Do contracts with software vendors, billing agents or insurers allocate responsibility for consent records and audit support?

Practical example

A multi-site general practice group allows patients to book online and tick a box agreeing to be bulk billed. That workflow may be useful, but the practice should check the actual wording and data capture. The checkbox should sit with the required assignment particulars, the system should record who agreed and when, the agreement should be linked to the relevant service or enduring assignment category, and the practice should be able to export the record if it receives a compliance query.

If the booking platform only records a generic acceptance without the prescribed particulars, the practice may need a revised consent screen, an additional confirmation step or a fallback paper process.

Frequently asked questions

Do patients still need to consent to bulk billing?

Yes. Services Australia says providers still need to get patient consent to assign the Medicare benefit when bulk billing. From 1 July 2026, that consent can be digital or paper, before or after the service, and a record must be kept.

Can a practice keep using Services Australia forms?

Yes. Services Australia says the standard assignment of benefit forms can still be used, but they are not mandatory. If a practice creates its own form or digital workflow, it must ensure the agreement includes the required particulars.

Can assignment of benefit be verbal after 1 July 2026?

For bulk billed services, Services Australia describes verbal agreement as a temporary measure during the transition arrangements. The provider must follow the stated process, including using the required signature-field wording, sending the completed form electronically to the patient and keeping a copy for 2 years. The position is different for simplified billing, where the new requirements started on 1 July 2026.

Does the change apply to DVA-funded health care?

Services Australia states that the verbal assignment requirements are not applicable to patients accessing health care funded by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Providers should check the applicable DVA claiming rules rather than assuming the Medicare bulk billing process applies.

What should software vendors do?

Software vendors should map each consent pathway their product supports, check the required assignment particulars, preserve an audit trail and make sure practices can retrieve records by claim, patient and service. Contracts should state who updates templates when government guidance changes and who assists if the customer receives a compliance review.

Sources

Disclaimer

This article provides general information only and is not legal advice. Medicare billing and assignment requirements can depend on the service, billing pathway, patient circumstances and the current form of Commonwealth legislation and guidance. Seek advice before changing a billing or consent workflow.