Pre-Assignment of Benefit functionality rolling out in July

Communicare plans to introduce Pre-Assignment of Benefit (Pre-AOB) workflow via a Central update in early July 2026, aligning with Medicare changes effective from 1 July 2026.

From 1 July 2026, the process of assigning Medicare benefits for bulk-billed services is changing. The new Pre-AOB workflow is designed to help Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) capture patient consent earlier, reduce administrative follow-up, and remain compliant with updated requirements.

What’s changing

Reforms to the Assignment of Benefit (AOB) process modernise how consent can be captured. These changes stem from updates to the Health Insurance Act 1973, introduced through the Assignment of Medicare Benefits Act 2024, alongside new 2025 regulations.

Key updates include:

• Patients can assign benefits before or after a service (pre- or post-assignment)
• Digital consent options are now permitted alongside paper forms
• An ‘enduring’ assignment option is planned (pending Services Australia specifications)

Updated consent requirements

Under the new rules, capturing a valid signature and consent must:

• Identify the patient or authorised representative using a reliable method;
• Clearly demonstrate intent to assign the benefit; and
• Be supported by verifiable evidence (e.g., identity-proofing flow/ audit logs).

In addition, the Commonwealth Department of Health’s policy position is that the patient (or assignor) must use their physical hand to ‘sign’ the AOB agreement either on screen or on paper.

Communicare cannot easily facilitate patient interaction with the screen, hence the workflow will require printing the pre-AOB agreement and the patient signing.

In practice, services need to:

• Log how identity was verified;
• Ensure any tick box is not pre-selected (requires active consent) and is clearly linked to the service episode;
• Ensure the consent statement includes; agreement to assign the Medicare benefit and,
• an understanding of bulk billing and confirmation of the patient’s identity (or authorised representative).

Electronic workflows must be reliable and allow for records to be retrieved and exported.

Signed agreements must be retained for two years and able to be provided to patients on request. Retained agreements do not have to be stored electronically (retaining the paper copy is sufficient).

What does this mean for Communicare

Post-AOB functionality was delivered in Communicare version 23.3.

The Department of Health acknowledges that not all Communicare customers will be on version 23.3 by 1 July 2026 and have indicated that they will be understanding of this in their approach to the implementation of assignment of benefits for Communicare sites.

The new pre-AOB workflow builds on this using configurable clinical items and letter templates. It enables services to capture consent before the service and ensures consent exists before the claim is submitted, reducing the need to follow up on patients after care, particularly when they may not return to the clinic.

How the pre-AOB workflow meets requirements

The Communicare pre-AOB workflow supports compliance by helping to ensure:

• Patient or authorised representative identity is verified and recorded;
• Explicit consent is captured (no pre-selected tick boxes);
• Consent statements meet Medicare requirements; and
• Each agreement is linked to a specific service episode.

Visibility and record-keeping

Once completed and signed, the pre-AOB workflow surfaces it where staff need to see it:

• A qualifier on the ‘Qualifier Summary’ makes the date of the signed pre-AOB agreement visible on the Main Summary.
• The agreement and a basic service description are visible in the progress notes of the relevant episode of care.
• The pre-AOB agreement is stored as a document in the clinical record.

Availability in Communicare

The “AOB Pre Assignment” clinical item and “AOB_Pre_Assignment_Agreement” letter template will be released via a Central update in early July 2026.

The two-tab clinical item supports the requirements of identity and consent, along with the ability to pull the clinician’s provider number in via a ‘calculate button’ to complete the pre-AOB agreement via the ‘save & write letter’ template. See the illustration below:

In order to comply with the Commonwealth Department of Health policy interpretation in regards to the patient signature, the per-AOB agreement must be printed and signed by the patient (or assignor), and stored securely for two years.

Communicare is finalising conformance with Services Australia. Users will be notified when Central updates are available to download via the Communicare Data Updater. Changes will also be published in the Knowledge Centre.

We recognise the challenges associated with Assignment of Benefit workflows in the ACCHO sector and are keen to work with the Commonwealth Department of Health to review the policy position regarding signing.

To support this, we encourage you to share your frontline experiences and challenges directly with Telstra Health, Clinical Lead, Yvonne.zardins@health.telstra.com