Eligibility check

Eligibility,
checked right.

Right the first time.

Know the Medicare benefit before the patient consents.

A sample eligibility check, returned in real time. See a full result.

Services Australia Certified Used by GP, specialist, and diagnostic practices across Australia
Beyond the form

Training can’t fix what only Medicare knows.

Some rules you can train: ages, referrers, item compatibility, all on the form. Others depend on what’s already been paid: data that lives with Medicare, not the practice. No training reaches that. We do.

$87.95 Caught before submission
What a check returns

Three possible answers.

Every item comes back with one of three answers. And the reason, in plain English.

Eligible

The patient is eligible to claim this item. The benefit is quoted in dollars.

Not eligible

The patient is not eligible. The reason is in plain English.

Cannot determine

The item couldn’t be checked for this patient. The reason says why.

See a full result, item by item.

When the details don’t match

Medicare corrects the record.
The form fills itself.

Sometimes the name on the form isn’t the name Medicare has on record. We don’t reject the check. We return Medicare’s value, and the form’s corrected before the patient stands up.

What we check

The whole check, in one call.

Identify the patient

  • Verify the Medicare card against Medicare’s record, in real time
  • Return Medicare’s value on any detail that differs

Check the rules

  • 300+ Medicare rules per transaction, across the full ~6,000-item MBS
  • The exact reason on a no, in plain English
  • Up to 50 items per check, in one call

Calculate the benefit

  • Schedule fee per item, current to the latest MBS release
  • Benefit calculated at the right percentage for where the service is provided
A glimpse under the hood

A sample of the rules we check.

Six of the 300+ checks that run on every item, before you submit.

Referrer eligibility

The referring provider is recognised to refer the item.

Provider eligibility

The servicing provider is recognised to perform and claim it.

Patient age

The item’s age limits.

In or out of hospital

The setting the item allows.

Same-day item combinations

Items that can’t be claimed together.

Frequency of service limits

How often the item can be claimed.

Two ways to run a check

One at a time,
or ten thousand at once.

Web app · API

Single check

One patient, up to 50 MBS items per call. Real-time. Run it while the patient is at reception. The answer is back before they sit down.

  • Run from the RebateRight web app, no integration required
  • Call the API directly from your PMS, EMR, or workflow
  • Per-item answers with the exact reason on a no
Web app

Bulk check

Upload a CSV with one row per request. Get a CSV back with per-item results. Built for the pre-claim sweep: a day’s claims checked before they go out.

  • Available in the RebateRight web app, no integration required
  • Download a sample CSV or upload your own
  • Per-item results plus summary counts: eligible, not eligible, cannot determine, total rebate
Services Australia Certified
We keep ours current
Zero Data Persistence
Stateless, real-time. Patient data never stored.
Azure Australia East
IRAP PROTECTED region

“A claim had been rejected across all five items. Using RebateRight we were able to claim back $500 we would have lost.”

Owner of a medical billing service serving ~30 healthcare clinics
Who uses eligibility check

From the solo practice to the national network.

  • Pathology labs

    Request panels, coning caught before lodging. Only the three highest-fee items are paid; you see which ones miss out upfront, not at reconciliation.

  • Radiology practices

    Imaging eligibility, referral validity, frequency limits, and where the service must be performed, all checked while the patient is still at reception.

  • GP clinics

    From a standard consult to a chronic disease management plan, every item checked at the desk before the bill is raised.

  • Specialist clinics

    Referral validation, attendance rules, frequency limits, surfaced at booking, not at the end of the quarter.

  • Allied health

    Care-plan items, allied-health visit caps, and chronic disease item eligibility, all settled before the appointment starts.

  • Medical billing services

    Pre-claim validation across every downstream practice in your portfolio, on a single API key or web-app login.

Pricing

Eligibility check is in every plan.

You pick the volume you need. The features stay the same.

See all 10 plans

Eligibility questions

Answered, in full.

What does an eligibility check return?

The check returns two parts:

  • PatientVerification: we check the patient’s details against Medicare’s records, and return the correct value for any field that doesn’t match.
  • Rebates: one result for each MBS item you submit, up to 50 per call. Each result has:
    • Result: eligible, not eligible, or cannot determine
    • Reason: a plain-English explanation
    • ReasonCode: the matching code for that reason
    • Schedule fee: the standard fee for the item
    • Benefit: the rebate amount
What does cannot determine mean?

The check couldn’t reach a definitive eligible or not eligible answer. Most often a required detail is missing, like the referring provider. Check the reason on the result, add what’s missing, and try again. One exception applies: items with a claim-frequency limit need the patient’s claim history to assess eligibility. Services Australia doesn’t share that data, so a retry won’t change the current result for those items.

Are there items you can’t check live?

Yes, some can’t be confirmed live. We run the same checks on every item: patient verification, age, referral, the item’s rules. Services Australia verifies most MBS items online, and there we confirm the result live. The rest we label indicative, our own assessment, not confirmed with Services Australia. The eligibility check coverage guide lists those items and what each result means.

Can I check multiple MBS items at once?

Yes. Up to 50 items for one patient in a single check, handy for a pathology request panel, an imaging service with several scans, or a consult with attached procedures. The whole check counts as one request. The full definition is in our Pricing Agreement.

Do I need anything before I can start?

No. Eligibility check needs no HW027 form, no clinic-level registration. We handle the full setup with Services Australia on your behalf. Sign up, get your API key (or open the web app), check your first patient in the same session.

What happens to patient data?

Zero Data Persistence. The request is processed in real time and discarded the moment the answer returns, so nothing is stored. Australian-hosted on Microsoft Azure’s Australia East region (IRAP PROTECTED). The only thing we keep is billing metadata (which endpoint, which MBS item, the outcome), never patient details.

Know before you submit.
14 days. No card.

Unlimited requests during the trial. The web app, the API, and the test environment.