Medicare assignment of benefit: what changed on 1 July 2026 (plus a free form template)
On 1 July 2026, the rules for collecting a Medicare assignment of benefits changed for every bulk billing practice in Australia. The old approved form is no longer required, electronic consent is official, and by July 2027 every bulk billed service needs its own signed agreement, kept for two years.
Getting the form right is the easy half, and we've made you one for free. The hard half is getting it back: signed, for every service, before you can legally bill it, and still findable two years later. That's the half that stops you billing.
This guide covers both. What changed, what your form now needs to include, why it's a different job for specialists than it is for GPs, and what practices are actually doing about the returns.
Just want the template? It's at the bottom of this page. Or skip to the demo to see what this looks like once it's handled.
“We would have over a thousand transactions go through the business each month. We cannot be doing this by hand.”
Endocrinologist and Practice Owner
What is a Medicare assignment of benefits?
An assignment of benefits (AoB) is the agreement a patient signs when they're bulk billed. By signing, the patient assigns their Medicare benefit directly to the practitioner, who accepts it as full payment for the service. That's one agreement per service, not one per patient. No AoB, no valid bulk bill claim.
Until 2026, that mostly meant the patient signing an approved Services Australia form, or giving verbal consent for telehealth under arrangements left over from the pandemic. A 2023 audit found legal risks in the verbal approach, and the government responded by modernising the whole process.
What changed on 1 July 2026?
The updated requirements came into effect on 1 July 2026 under the Health Insurance Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Benefits and Other Measures) Regulations 2025. The headlines:
No more approved form
You can use any written agreement, on paper or electronic, as long as it contains the particulars set out in the Health Insurance Regulations 2018.
Electronic consent is officially in
Services Australia's guidance explicitly recognises digital methods: an email the patient replies to, consent built into your booking software, or an SMS link to a form the patient accepts with a checkbox.
Timing is flexible
The agreement can be made before the service (at booking or in the waiting room) or after it (before the claim is submitted).
Practitioners no longer sign
Only the patient (or a responsible person on their behalf) signs the agreement.
Record keeping is now explicit
You must keep each completed agreement for 2 years from the date the claim is made, and give the patient a copy if they ask.
"Patient unable to sign" is gone
That notation was abolished. A responsible person, such as a parent or guardian, signs instead.
There's also a new "enduring" assignment option for ongoing bulk billed GP services, available to patients registered with MyMedicare, residents of aged care homes, and patients of ACCHOs and AMSs. It doesn't extend to specialist services, which makes this a very different job depending on the kind of practice you run. More on that below.
“Some people are like, ‘Look, I don’t own a printer.’ The problem is, I can’t bill Medicare legally.”
Practice Owner
The 12-month transition period (and why "it's not mandatory yet" is cold comfort)
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1 July 2026. The new rules take effect. Any written agreement containing the required particulars is valid, paper or electronic.
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Until 1 July 2027. Verbal assignment of benefits is still accepted for all bulk billed services, as a temporary transition measure.
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From July 2027. Every bulk billed service needs a documented agreement, and a compliance review can ask to see any agreement from the past 2 years.
That sounds like breathing room, and it is. But the government has been clear that verbal consent is a temporary measure. Even then, verbal consent isn't paperwork-free: you note "assignor verbally agreed" in the signature field, and you must give the patient a copy of the completed agreement. So "we'll just do it verbally until 2027" still leaves you sending and filing a record for every service.
It's also worth doing the arithmetic before June 2027 rather than during it. This isn't a project with a finish line. It's one small job attached to every bulk billed service you deliver, every day, for as long as you bulk bill. Take your daily bulk billed volume and multiply it by 250. That's roughly how many agreements a year you're now responsible for producing, collecting and being able to find on request.
Practices that sort the process now get to do it calmly, one workflow change at a time. Practices that wait do it in a panic, on top of everything else June brings.
“I was bulk billing into the new Medicare legislation. I think it's just easier if they actually pay a nominal fee, like, you know, a gap of ten dollars or something, because then they don't have to sign all the forms.”
Orthopaedic Surgeon, solo private practice
How practices are handling AoB collection right now
Talk to practice managers this month and you'll hear the same three approaches:
The printer method
Print a form per appointment, chase the signature at the desk, scan it, file it, repeat per service. It works well enough when the patient is standing in front of you. It falls over for telehealth, for anyone who doesn't turn up with it done, and for the two year retrieval, because a scanned PDF is only findable later if somebody named it properly on the day.
The DIY digital method
Some practices are rebuilding their AoB form in generic form tools like Jotform and texting the links out manually. The form itself is usually fine. What stays manual is everything around it: knowing who hasn't sent one back, sending the reminder, filing the result against the right appointment, and keeping the wording current as the rules settle.
The wait-and-see method
Continue with verbal consent until July 2027 and leave the change to the deadline. The catch is the one above: verbal consent was never paperwork free, so you're still producing and filing a record for every service in the meantime, and you'll be switching the whole practice over in the same month as everybody else.
All three are reasonable answers to the wrong question. Each one solves how to produce the form. None of them solves the part that actually costs you, which is getting it back.
“It would come through the printer… I hated it. It was such a waste of paper. You'd have to print it out and then scan it in… if we were closed over Christmas or something, you'd come back to, like, this fat stack.”
Reception, GP practice
Medicare assignment of benefits requirements: what your form must include
Because there's no prescribed form anymore, the burden shifts to you: whatever form you use (some practices call it a bulk billing consent form) must contain the required particulars (sometimes called the assignment of benefit data set). For standard services, that means:
- The patient's name (the person receiving the service)
- The date the agreement is made
- Whether it's a pre-agreement (before the service) or post-agreement (after the service)
- The practitioner's name and practice address, or their provider number
- The date of service
- The MBS item number, or a description of the service if the agreement is made before the consult
- Whether the person signing is the patient or a responsible person acting for them
- The assignment statement and the assignor's signature (physical or electronic)
Pathology and diagnostic imaging services have their own additional requirements, and DVA-funded services aren't covered by these rules.
Get any of that wrong and the claim may not hold up in a compliance review. So we built a template that gets it right, and it's yours free. It's at the bottom of this page.
It's worth being straight about what a template fixes, though. Getting the wording right is the easy half of this, and it's a one-off. The hard half starts afterwards: getting one back, signed, for every single service you bulk bill, and still being able to put your hands on it two years later.
A calmer arrival for your patients, and a quieter morning for you.
We're building the extra set of hands behind the front desk, so the paperwork sends, chases and files itself. Assignment of benefits, from the first request to the filed record, is exactly the kind of job we're building for.
Click the task below the way your patient would.
Patient / assignor details
Please complete this form to assign payment of your Medicare benefit to your practitioner. This form must be completed before your appointment.
- Patient name:
- Sarah Thompson
- Practitioner name:
- Dr James Chen
- Practice address:
- 12 Marine Parade, Southport QLD 4215
- Date of service:
- 3:00 pm, Thu 27 Aug
- Basic service description:
- MBS #105 · Specialist · Short Consult
Privacy statement
Our practice collects and handles your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988, for the purpose of assessing entitlement to, and administration of, payments and services. This information has been collected to enable us to process your claim. Failure to provide this information may prevent you from accessing bulk billing. Your personal information may be used by us or disclosed to other parties for the purposes of research, investigation, or where you have agreed, or if required or authorised by law.
Everyone arrives ready
Three things practices feel in the first week.
Patients feel looked after
Every form arrives through a single link, so patients aren't left searching for what they need.
Before every visitYour team can breathe
Reminders and follow-ups send themselves, so the front desk isn't chasing forms all morning.
Runs automaticallyPeace of mind
Every form is tracked from sent to filed. You'll always know exactly where things stand.
Tracked end to endKnow what needs attention, before it becomes a problem.
Coviu turns a manual process into a system your practice can rely on.
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1
Add your forms
Bring your own or start from a ready-made template, like the assignment of benefits form above.
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2
Create a workflow
Choose when things send and when they're due, once, and every task follows along.
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3
Patients get a neat, timed bundle
One secure link instead of a trail of emails and texts to keep track of.
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4
Full visibility on returns
A simple view of who's done what, and a gentle nudge when someone's behind.
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5
It files itself back to your PMS
Completed forms upload into Gentu, Cliniko or Nookal on their own, with the 2-year retention requirement handled.
Download the free assignment of benefits form template
A print-ready AoB form containing every particular required under the new regulations, plus a one-page guide for your front desk. Available as a PDF you can print today and a Google Doc you can copy and adapt to your practice. Works for GPs, specialists and allied health. Free, no strings.
The paperwork problem, solved
Paperwork that files itself.
The template above solves today. Our new tool removes the manual work around it. Early access is opening region by region, so tell us a little about your practice and we'll be in touch as it opens in yours.
Medicare Assignment of Benefits Frequently Asked Questions
You need a documented assignment of benefits agreement for every bulk billed service, but not an approved form. Any written or electronic agreement that contains the required particulars is valid. During the transition period to 1 July 2027, verbal consent is still accepted as a temporary measure.
Yes. Services Australia's guidance recognises electronic agreement, including an SMS link to a form the patient accepts via checkbox, an email reply, or consent captured in booking software. Where an electronic signature is used, it must meet the Electronic Transactions Act 1999 requirements.
In practice, yes. "Bulk billing consent form" is the everyday name many clinics use for the AoB agreement: the document where the patient assigns their Medicare benefit to the practitioner as full payment.
Two years from the date the claim is made. You must also give the patient a copy of their agreement if they request one.
Yes. Bulk billed telehealth consultations need an assignment of benefits like any other service. The electronic methods (SMS link, email agreement) exist largely because of telehealth, where a paper signature was never practical.
Right here. Our free template includes a print-ready PDF and an editable Word version, containing all the particulars required under the 2026 rules.
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