Medicare Healthy Kids Check: Preparing for the 3-Year-Old Assessment
Online training for Australian general practice
Practical Healthy Kids Check training for your GP team.
Prepare for the new Medicare 3-year-old assessment: what to check, how to support families and how to turn findings into clear follow-up.
A$10 including GST · About 75 minutes · 12 months’ access
Nine practical lessons, two assessments, a workbook, a practice launch kit and an editable clinical template. Earn a named completion certificate when you meet the course requirements.
Already completed this training? Quick refresher
A quick reminder for experienced staff. Revisit only what you need.
- Check the item rules on MBS Online before offering or claiming the check.
- Record parent or carer priorities and reliable existing information without duplicating assessment.
- Clinical assessment, developmental concerns and the next care plan remain the GP’s decisions.
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.
Start with a free guide: How to prepare your GP team for the 3-year-old Healthy Kids Check. Use the practical booking, handover and follow-up checklist to start a team discussion.
Who this is for
General practice receptionists, practice nurses and team leaders in Australian general practice. Each lesson says at the top whether it is for reception, for nurses or for everyone. The labels show who each lesson is written for; whatever your role, the certificate needs all nine lessons and both assessments.
Bring basic familiarity with general practice and your role. The people and practice in this course are made up.
Learning time: allow about 75 minutes for the nine lessons and two assessments, and longer if you work through the workbook and the launch kit. Take the time you need.
What you will practise
- Explaining the age rule, once-per-lifetime frequency and 1 November start date without promising a rebate for a visit before it.
- Booking the check around your practice’s GP-alone or nurse-assisted model, arranging an interpreter when needed, and explaining fees without promising a rebate.
- Opening the visit with the family’s priorities and keeping reports, observations and the GP’s conclusions apart.
- Covering every required assessment area, recording honestly, and keeping an unfinished assessment open until the required work is complete.
- Recognising loss of skills and emergency signs, and what a screening result can and can’t say.
- Answering Thriving Kids and NDIS questions without deciding someone else’s program.
- Writing a follow-up plan with an owner and a date, and tracking a referral until the child is seen.
- Setting the practice up in seven steps, explaining the conditional Healthy Start for School requirements, and selecting the item only after the assessment is complete.
Nine practical lessons
- Prepare now, verify before claiming
- Eligibility and booking: use the child’s age at the visit
- Start with the family’s priorities
- Cover the whole child without turning the visit into a checklist race
- Concerns, screening and escalation
- A written plan the family can use
- Thriving Kids, NDIS and Medicare are separate decisions
- Work the whole case: booking to follow-up
- Launch kit and billing: get the practice ready
Learn by making decisions
Short explanations lead into realistic cases with answer-and-reveal feedback, a “When time is short” box, a booking model, wording tables and quick recall checks. The workbook contains practical tools and worked examples, also available as text in lesson 8. Lesson 9 adds a practice launch kit: a seven-step set-up checklist, a parent information sheet, the clinical template (also as an editable Word file), a billing worked example, and a parent summary letter.
Assessment and completion
Complete all nine lessons, pass the ten-question knowledge assessment (80%) and the five-question safety assessment (100%). There is no time limit; you can read the explanations and retry. Written practice tasks are for your own learning and are not marked. You receive a certificate of completion. This is professional development, not accredited CPD, and it does not give anyone authority to diagnose or to claim Medicare.
Use Mark Complete when you finish a lesson, then return through My Courses. Optional feedback after completion can be skipped.
Before you enrol
Can I take this course before the check starts?
Yes. The course is available now to help your team prepare. The Medicare Healthy Kids Check begins on 1 November 2026 for children aged three, using the existing time-tiered health assessment items. Check current MBS eligibility and item requirements before booking or claiming.
Is this only for nurses?
No. It is written for receptionists, practice nurses and team leaders, with role labels in each lesson. Reception learns booking, communication and escalation; nurses learn preparation and assessment support within their scope. The GP remains responsible for the medical assessment and clinical decisions.
Are the templates and completion certificate included?
Yes. The A$10 enrolment includes 12 months’ access, the workbook, launch kit and editable clinical template. Complete the nine lessons and pass both assessments to receive your named certificate. This records professional development; it is not a nationally recognised qualification or an award of accredited CPD points.
Can I arrange training for my practice team?
Each enrolment is for one named learner. Contact us to arrange Healthy Kids Check training for your team, so each learner has their own access, progress and certificate.
Official sources
- MBS: Medicare Healthy Kids Check announcement
- AJGP: A guide to the 3-year-old health check for general practice (September 2026)
- MBS: Healthy Kids Check factsheet
- Department of Health: Thriving Kids
- Child development referral criteria (Queensland Health example — use your own state’s criteria or HealthPathways)
- MBS AN.0.36: common assessment rules
- AskMBS: health assessments and assisting time
- TIS National: Free Interpreting Service
- OAIC: using or disclosing health information