Medicare Physiotherapy Bondi Junction

Physiotherapy is an IMPORTANT TREATMENT OPTION for many acute but also chronic conditions, including backpain, headaches, tennis elbow, sports injuries, etc. On some occasions, you could get a rebate for your physio sessions through Medicare!

In this post, we want to help you guide when you could get this rebate and what you need to do for that. It can be a simple process if you know how it works!

 

CAN I GET A MEDICARE REBATE FOR PHYSIOTHERAPY?
 
 
YES you can (under certain conditions)

To get a rebate through Medicare, you will need a specific ‘EPC PLAN’ (short for ‘enhanced primary care plan’) or easier ‘CARE PLAN’. This has to be referred by a GP.

A Care Plan is for people with a chronic condition, meaning a condition which they have had for over 3 months.



MEDICARE PHYSIOTHERAPY: HOW MANY SESSIONS CAN I GET?


With a Care Plan, you are eligible to have UP TO 5 SESSIONS  with a health care provider per calendar year (between Jan 1st and Dec 31st each year). A health care provider can be one of the following: Physiotherapist, chiropractor, osteopath, dietitian, exercise physiologist, podiatrist, speech pathologist,...

Anyone who is eligible for medicare can have UP TO 5 SESSIONS PER CALENDAR YEAR  with this Care Plan. Here’s how it works: there are 5 sessions in total per calendar year!

You might have 2 sessions for a podiatrist and 3 for physio OR 4 for physio and 1 for osteopathy OR 3 for a dietitian and 2 for exercise physiologist, etc. This TOTALS 5, so there can never be more than 5 rebates per calendar year.

To get the full 5 sessions for 1 specific health care provider, the GP has to refer you to a specialist doctor as well.

If the GP doesn't refer you to a specialist doctor, he or she will usually split up the 5 sessions as in the examples above.

There are different care plans for mental issues (e.g. a referral to see a psychologist), but that’s a separate referral and is not included in these 5 sessions.








MEDICARE REBATE COVER AND GAP PAYMENTS


The rebate depends on the year. As of January 2023, the rebate is $56 PER PHYSIOTHERAPY

You will get the same rebate of $56 for an initial consult as well as all the other follow-up consults that you might be recommended by as well, up to 5 sessions per calendar year.

At Physio K, we provide a Quality service and will invest our time solely to you. Therefore, we do not bulk bill Medicare for physiotherapy at our practice, so there will always be a gap payment.

This is around $55 for your initial consult (which is half an hour of comprehensive assessment, diagnosis, planning and treatment) and around $45 for any subsequent consults.


5 FREE PHYSIO SESSIONS MEDICARE

As mentioned above, at Physio K we happily accept Care Plans from your GP which will give you a rebate for up to 5 physiotherapy treatments per calendar year. 

We do not bulk bill; our fees are reflecting the high quality of assessment and treatment that we provide. We pride ourselves on high knowledge, skills and experience and we are proud of the level of care we can give to our clients. 

You will get the rebate automatically in your account within 2 business days, so you don't have to do anything for that. It can definitely help to reduce the cost for the first 5 sessions. The number of treatments you will need depends on the injury and the duration of the problem, but we usually see good benefits with dry needling within the first session already. 


HOW DO I GET THE MEDICARE REBATE?