Nurse Follow-up in General Practice: MBS 10997 and 10987
GP Staff Academy · Nurse stream · For nurses
Already completed this training? Quick refresher
A quick reminder for experienced staff. Revisit only what you need.
- Choose the right follow-up pathway; verify eligibility, plan or assessment history and remaining allowance.
- Provide and document the eligible clinical service within your scope and supervision requirements.
- Keep GP preparation assistance, administration and separately eligible follow-up services distinct.
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.
Make every nurse follow-up count
Choose the right pathway, check the supporting record and document the care you actually provide.
Is this course for you?
For registered and enrolled nurses and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners working in, or preparing for, Australian general practice. No billing experience is assumed. Practice managers and reception staff who book or bill these services will find the eligibility and counting rules useful; the billing detail sits in collapsed “For billing staff” boxes.
By the end, you can
- Tell the 10997 and 10987 pathways apart and find the plan or health assessment that supports each service.
- Check plan dates, delivery mode, the annual cap and duplication before a service is treated as claimable, and know who to hand an uncertain claim to.
- Avoid the two commonest errors: billing under a practitioner who is not actually supervising, in Australia and readily contactable, and claiming help with the GP’s own plan or assessment as a separate nurse service.
- Give an ISBAR handover, write a short note that links care to the plan or assessment, and keep a register that separates clinical services from admin.
Each lesson opens with a decision to try before you read, and you finish with six clinic decisions, one three-line handover, and a printable desk tool and note template.
Lessons
- Start here — Confident nurse follow-up (about 5 minutes)
- Lesson 1 — Two pathways, safe scope (about 5 minutes)
- Lesson 2 — 10997: eligibility and plan currency (about 6 minutes)
- Lesson 3 — 10987: follow-up after a health assessment (about 5 minutes)
- Lesson 4 — Delivery modes, annual caps and duplication (about 5 minutes)
- Lesson 5 — Notes that support care and clear handover (about 7 minutes)
- Lesson 6 — Reliable follow-up that patients can use (about 5 minutes)
- Final practice — Nurse follow-up (about 6 minutes)
Completion and your certificate
The final assessment has 16 scenario questions; answer at least 13 correctly (80%) to pass. There is no time limit and you can retake it. A certificate of completion is available after you finish all lessons and pass the assessment.
Professional development and standards
Nurses and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners may record the time they actually spend as self-directed learning under their National Board’s continuing professional development registration standard, where it is relevant to their practice. This course is professional development, not accredited CPD. It is written from MBS Online item descriptors and explanatory notes, Services Australia guidance and Nursing and Midwifery Board standards, and it supports, rather than satisfies, a practice’s training evidence under the RACGP Standards for general practices.
Before you start
The people and practice in this course are made up, and the images are illustrative. The course does not authorise any clinical activity or guarantee that a claim will be paid: your scope, supervision and practice policy apply, and the claiming practitioner remains responsible for each claim. Medicare rules change, so check the current descriptor for the date of service.