Significant industry changes are on the way! From AIR reporting requirements and reduced claiming timeframes to the new Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program Statistics Report, here’s everything your practice needs to know to stay prepared and compliant ahead of 1 November 2025.
Time is running out to update!
Impacts of not updating:
Australian Immunisation Register
– AIR mandatory reporting changes are in effect from 24 October 2025! Be sure to update to SP1 Revision 3 as soon as possible or AIR submissions will be rejected for not including a mandatory antenatal status.
November 1st Bulk Billing Changes
– Upgrade as soon as possible, the Bulk Billing incentives items will not be applied to all patient BB accounts in line with the 1 November 2025 changes, and only to children under 16 and concession card holders.
Australian Immunisation Register
Mandatory AIR reporting deadline is almost here. Are you ready for 24th October?
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has introduced an Antenatal field to:
- Report more easily and accurately if a patient is pregnant at the time a vaccine is administered
- Improve the collection of antenatal data
- Support monitoring of immunisation coverage
The new Antenatal checkbox will be available with the following business logic:
- Automatically selected if the patient is recorded as pregnant and aged 10 to 65
- A warning will display if selected manually outside of this age range
This change is in addition to updates to simplify the Vaccine Type field, originally scheduled for 1 March 2025, which will now also take effect on 24th October 2025.
The Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program
The new Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program begins 1 November 2025.
Practices that commit to bulk billing all eligible services for all eligible patients can receive a 12.5% incentive on every dollar bulk billed, paid quarterly and shared between the practice and providers.
To prepare, you must upgrade to Bp Premier Spectra Service Pack 1 Revision 3. Our Masterclass webinars in October will walk you through what these updates mean and how Bp Premier Service Pack 1 Revision 3 supports the changes. Take a look at the following video that outlines the expanded eligibility and the BBPIP.
The November Data Update, the BBPIP Statistics Report, and the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program
With the 1 November 2025 changes drawing close and Spectra SP1 Revision 3 having been released into the wild for a few weeks now, it’s a good time to look ahead and take stock of what else is coming soon, and how Best Practice Software is supporting these industry changes.
As mentioned in the previous month’s Evolution article, the expansion of eligibility for Bulk Billing Incentives and the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program are coming on 1 November 2025.
To help you determine whether or not the BBPIP is worth it for you and your practice, Bp have been running Masterclass webinars, and have developed articles, FAQs and guides on how to best set up your practice for success.
Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program Statistics Report
The Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program (BBPIP) Statistics Report (accessible via the reporting tool) provides the data points required for the government’s new Bulk Billing Incentives Calculator. The calculator uses the data points from the last 12 months to estimate bulk billing incentives and the Bulk Billing Practice Incentives Program payments from 1st November 2025, to assist mixed-billing practices in determining if participation in the Bulk Billing PIP is suitable for them.
Learn more from the BBPIP Statistics article on the Bp Premier Spectra Knowledge Base.
Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program Calculator
To support the Bulk Billing PIP, the government has released a calculator to assist your practice in estimating comparative income as a BBPIP participant, based on data you provide about your current billing mix and concessional patient proportions. The calculator can help you estimate the financial gain or impact of moving to a 100% bulk billing model, taking into account increased incentive eligibility and the BBPIP 12.5% incentive.
See the Knowledge Base article to learn more.
Claiming timeframes have been reduced to 12 months
From 5 September 2025, under the Strengthening Medicare initiative, the claim time for bulk billed services has been reduced from 24 months to 12 months.
- Bulk billed services rendered on or after 5th September 2025 can be claimed up to one year from the Date of Service.
- Bulk billed services rendered before 5 September 2025 can be claimed up to two years from the Date of Service.
The restriction, announced in the 2024-2025 Federal Budget, came into effect 5 September 2025.
The November Data Update
Updated incentives and items will be made available in the November Data Update for BBPIP, MHTP and LARC service items.
November DU: New Management Report: The BBPIP Audit Report
A new management report, to be released in the November Data Update, has been created by the team at Best Practice that will help users determine whether or not they have accidentally privately billed an eligible item number.
It is paramount that while utilising the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program that all eligible items are bulk billed by all providers. In the case of a simple mistake, this report can be run after being enabled to help identify any privately billed NRA items.
To enable this report for a user in Bp Premier. navigate to Setup > Users > Edit > Setup Reports and tick the checkbox next to Transaction Report – Bulk Bill PIP Audit.
Spectra Service Pack 1 Revision 3 Recap
Spectra Service Pack 1 Revision 3 brings a suite of powerful updates designed to support your practice through the upcoming Medicare changes, improve third-party integration data security, and streamline communication with patients. Here’s a quick look back on what was released:
The Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program (BBPIP)
Starting 1 November 2025, the new Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program (BBPIP) will offer participating practices a 12.5% quarterly incentive on every $1 of MBS benefit paid from eligible services. This payment is split 50/50 between the provider and the practice.
Chronic Condition Management (CCM) Claiming Logic Enhancements
To support the CCM changes introduced on 1 July 2025, Bp Premier now includes smarter claiming logic for relevant MBS items during visit finalising and invoicing.
Emailing from Correspondence In as PIN-secured PDFs
You can now email Correspondence items directly to patients from the Correspondence In screen as PIN-secured PDF attachments.
Standalone Third-Party Integration Utility and Halo Connect
By 31 December 2025, all third-party integrations will transition to Halo Connect for improved security and transparency. These integrations will require a pairing code. A standalone third-party integration management window has been developed to support this change.
AIR Reporting Compliance
To meet new Antenatal reporting requirements for AIR vaccination encounters, an Antenatal checkbox has been added to the Add/Edit Immunisation screen.
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Spectra Service Pack 1 Revision 3 is a major step forward in preparing your practice for 2025’s Medicare changes, staying secure and ensuring reporting compliance. Be sure to upgrade as soon as possible to take full advantage of these enhancements.
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