Medicare & Billing Conversations
Handle the hard Medicare and billing conversations accurately and respectfully, and know exactly when to check, hold or hand over.
Practise the billing conversations you handle every day
Explain fees clearly, check common claim problems and know when to hand over to the authorised person. For Australian GP reception and administration staff and the managers who support them.
A$10 including GST · About 70 minutes · 12 months’ access
Complete the required learning and pass the assessment for your completion certificate.
Enrol in billing training — A$10 →
14-day money-back guarantee. Buying for staff? Arrange their learner accounts first.
Already completed this training? Quick refresher
A quick reminder for experienced staff. Revisit only what you need.
- Check the service record, payer, patient agreement and current item rules before changing a claim.
- Explain the practice’s current fee; a rebate or successful claim is never a promise.
- Preserve the account trail and give unresolved exceptions to the authorised reviewer.
Open the lessons and tools. Use current local procedures and sources.
This optional refresher does not record a new completion. Certificates require the full course and its assessments.
Who it’s for
Reception and administration staff in Australian general practice who talk to patients about fees, bulk billing and claims, and the practice managers who back them up. It follows on from Module 5 of our Comprehensive GP Receptionist Certificate, but stands alone. Practice nurses don’t select GP items and won’t need most of it; the nurse courses carry the one-page item map that shows who claims what.
The people and practice in this course, Rivergum General Practice, are made up.
Do I need this or receptionist foundations?
Receptionist foundations introduces the wider front-desk role and basic billing habits. Choose this focused course when you already handle fees and claims and want more practice with billing conversations, exceptions and handovers. You do not need to buy the foundation course first.
Already confident with everyday billing? Unpaid Accounts, Reconciliation and Payment Disputes practises the service-to-payment trail and supported balances. It is an optional next step for staff with billing training or equivalent experience.
By the end you can
- Explain fees, benefits and gaps in plain language, and say what a bulk-billing practice can and can’t charge for.
- Check identity, eligibility, the assignment of benefit and the payer, and work the next morning’s processing and exception report.
- Resolve or hand over rejections, unpaid accounts, DVA and third-party questions and privacy slips, with a clear note.
The modules
- Know the question, who owns it, and the language patients can trust
- Who is entitled, and the exception check
- Fee conversations and informed financial consent
- Bulk billing and the assignment of benefit
- MyMedicare, Closing the Gap and program registrations
- DVA, WorkCover and third-party billing
- Telehealth, referrals and changed services
- Claiming, rejections, corrections — and the clock
- Unpaid accounts, debt conduct and the Safety Net
- Privacy at the billing desk
- When billing goes wrong, and bringing the method together
Course at a glance
- 11 modules, about 70 minutes in total, including reading, activities and assessment.
- Final assessment: 16 scenario questions, pass mark 80% (13 correct), no time limit, retakes available.
- Certificate of completion on finishing all modules and passing the assessment.
What’s included
Practice checks with worked answers, model scripts, example notes and handovers, a worked case, a printable black-and-white desk tool, a link to the official source for every rule, the final assessment and a certificate.
Professional development and standards
This course is professional development, not accredited CPD, and no fixed hours are claimed; record your actual learning time. Content is developed with reference to MBS Online, Services Australia, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, DVA, the PBS, the ACCC/ASIC debt collection guideline and the OAIC, and is designed to support training evidence for practices working to the RACGP Standards. It is not endorsed by the RACGP or any other body.
This is general education about administrative processes and patient communication, not legal, financial or billing advice for a particular case. Medicare rules and fees change; always check the linked official source for the date of service and follow your practice’s procedures.