MyMedicare for DVA Patients

Last updated:

9 November 2023

The MyMedicare program aims to formalise the relationship between patients, their general practice, general practitioner (GP) and primary care teams.

What is MyMedicare?

MyMedicare is a new voluntary patient registration model for all Australians, including Veteran Card holders. It aims to formalise the relationship between patients, their general practice, general practitioner (GP) and primary care teams.

Registration with MyMedicare is voluntary and electing not to register will not prevent you from accessing services you already receive from DVA.

Who can register for MyMedicare?

To register in MyMedicare, you must have either:

a Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) Veteran Card; or
a Medicare card.

You will need to have 2 face-to-face visits, funded by Medicare and/or DVA, recorded with the same practice in the previous 24 months to be eligible to register.

If you live in a remote area (Modified Monash Model (MM) 6 and 7 locations), there is a reduced requirement of one face-to-face visit in the previous 24 months.

Eligible visits can be funded through DVA, Medicare or a combination of both.

Parents/guardians and children can be registered at the same practice if one of them is eligible and registered at the practice.

You can only be registered with one practice at a time. Registration with either your Veteran Card or Medicare card will apply to all eligible services funded by DVA or Medicare.

What you can receive

DVA patients who are registered in MyMedicare will have access to:

greater continuity of care with their registered practice, improving health outcomes
longer DVA and MBS-funded telephone calls with their usual general practice (from 1 November 2023)
a tripled Veterans' Access Payment incentive, paid to their GP, for longer DVA funded telehealth consultations providing greater incentive for GPs to treat veterans (from 1 November 2023)
more regular visits from their GP and better care planning for people living in a residential aged care home (from August 2024)
connections to more appropriate care in general practice for people who visit hospital frequently (from mid-2024).

MyMedicare registration will not prevent you from accessing care from other practices and health care providers. However, the longer telehealth items and the new residential aged care and frequent hospital users incentives will be linked to your registered practice.

How to register

There are a number of ways you can register with your chosen practice in MyMedicare:

If you choose to register with your Veteran Card, you will need to fill out a registration form at your practice. By signing the form, you are giving your consent to participate in MyMedicare with that practice. Practice staff will then complete the registration in the MyMedicare system.
If you choose to register with your Medicare Card, start the registration process in your Medicare Online Account or Express Plus Medicare Mobile app using your Medicare Card details. Practice staff will then accept the registration in the MyMedicare system.
Your practice may start the registration in MyMedicare using your Medicare card details, or you can ask them to do this. This will trigger a registration in your Medicare Online Account or Express Plus Medicare Mobile app which you can then complete.

If you use your Medicare card to register through your Medicare Online Account or Express Plus Medicare Mobile app, you will have access to a range of self‑service functions including the ability to amend or withdraw your registration at any time. You will not be able to use these self-service functions if you register using your Veteran Card.

Changing preferred practices or GPs

You may only be registered to one practice at any time. There are a few options to amend your MyMedicare registration:

Contact your Current Practice – You may amend or withdraw your registration by contacting the practice you are registered with, who can withdraw your registration online.
Register with a New Practice – When you register with a new practice, you will be automatically withdrawn from your current registration. No further action is required.
Through the Medicare Online Application (Medicare card only) – If you registered using your Medicare card, you will be able to use the Medicare Online Application self-service functionality to amend or withdraw your registration.
Contact Services Australia or DVA – You will have the option to withdraw from MyMedicare, by calling Medicare or DVA.

Privacy

When you register in MyMedicare, your personal information will be kept secure and your privacy will be maintained.

For more information about how we manage your personal information, see the MyMedicare Privacy Notice.

More Information

For further information about MyMedicare, visit the Department of Health and Aged Care’s website.

You may also wish to download the MyMedicare resources for patients.