Smarter Billing, Better Care with MBSPro

Medicare billing is an essential part of general practice operations, yet its complexity often leads to unintentional errors or missed opportunities. As practices navigate care plans, reviews, time-based attendances, and multidisciplinary care, gaps in Medicare claims can quietly impact sustainability, patient follow-up, and team workload.

The Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) is designed to enable access to care, but its detailed item criteria, co-claiming restrictions, and eligibility timelines can create challenges for busy general practices. Common scenarios include:

• Overdue care plan reviews (item 732), which may go unbilled.

• Missed opportunities for mental health follow-up (item 2712).

• Co-claiming issues—such as attempting to bill standard consultations (item 23) alongside items that are already time-based.

• Delayed billing due to uncertainty around item combinations or patient eligibility.
  

For many practices, these missed opportunities result not only in financial loss but in fragmented care continuity.

These issues rarely stem from lack of diligence. Instead, they are often caused by:

• Staff turnover and variations in billing knowledge.
• Manual processes that rely on memory or outdated cheat sheets.

• Limited visibility of what items are eligible, when, and under which conditions.

Improving billing outcomes starts with reducing the cognitive load on GPs, nurses, and admin staff. Practical strategies include:

• Incorporating MBS education into onboarding and ongoing training.
• Regular reviews of care plans and item usage across the practice.

• Leveraging systems that prompt for reviews or highlight item combinations in real time.

Supporting accurate billing isn’t just about revenue; it’s about sustaining quality care, recognising the work delivered, and ensuring eligible patients receive appropriate follow-up. As general practices increasingly take a team-based approach to care, systems that simplify Medicare claiming—without overburdening staff—can assist in maintaining compliance and continuity.

MBSPro is one such tool used by GPs and practice teams to help surface relevant MBS items in real time, reduce billing gaps, and align item use with clinical documentation.