Check Medicare Card Eligibility

Use the Check Medicare Card for Bulk Bill Eligibility window to help manage your patients' Medicare details.

To view a list of patients and their Medicare details recorded in Communicare, select Tools > Check Medicare Card Eligibility.

The Check Medicare Card for Bulk Bill Eligibility window displays the patients' details, their Medicare card details and the validation code for the Medicare card of each patient.
Example Check Medicare Card for Bulk Bill Eligibility window
The Medicare card details can be in one of the following states:
  • Unknown - the card has never been validated with Medicare Australia
  • Invalid (code) - the Medicare card is invalid for the reason provided. The reason code is listed in the Online Code field and details are provided in the Medicare Australia Error Text Message field.
  • Valid (code) - the Medicare card is valid but a minor detail such as the reference number is incorrect. The reason code is listed in the Online Code field and details are provided in the Medicare Australia Error Text Message field.
  • Valid - Medicare Australia validated this Medicare card for bulk billing purposes
Information displayed in the Check Medicare Card for Bulk Bill Eligibility window is colour-coded:
  • Patients with valid Medicare card details are displayed in green text
  • Patients with invalid Medicare card details are displayed in red text
  • Patients with Medicare card details that have never been validated are displayed in black text

To check the Medicare card status of an individual patient, select a patient in the list and click Check this patient's Medicare CardCheck this patient's Medicare Card.

Tip: Patients are sorted by ID by default. To sort by Medicare status, in the table, click Online Code.

Record the Medicare details for patients with a status of Unknown. Update the Medicare details for patients with a status of Invalid.

Alternatively, update the Medicare details of a single patient in their patient record. In the Check Medicare Card for Bulk Bill Eligibility window, click Biographics buttonBiographics. For more information, see Medicare details.

Tip: Check the Medicare details for a patient any time in their biographics.