From 1 July 2026, the Australian Government is updating the Assignment of Benefit (AoB) that applies to Medicare bulk billed services. Telstra Health products are designed to comply with these changes by 1 July, although the way this is reflected will vary across different products.
These updates are part of the Australian Government’s plan to modernise Medicare, designed to improve transparency for patients, support more robust record keeping, and continue the shift away from paper-based processes toward more streamlined digital workflows.
For many Telstra Health customers, the message is simple: most systems are already aligned or close to meeting requirements. As a result, existing workflows are expected to stay largely the same, with updates designed to support everyday operations.
What’s changing (and what isn’t)?
Assignment of Benefit is not new. It has long been a core requirement of Medicare bulk billing. When a patient receives a service, Medicare provides a benefit (a payment or subsidy) for that service. In bulk billing, the patient formally assigns this to the provider to receive payment.
What is changing is not the requirement itself, but how evidence of that assignment is captured, stored and audited. In practice this means:
- Patients can assign benefits before or after a service
- Digital consent options alongside paper forms
- The planned introduction of an ‘enduring’ assignment model (subject to Services Australia specifications and implementation timeframes)
How is support built into Telstra Health products?
Telstra Health’s primary and community care solutions are designed to support these requirements in a way that minimises changes to existing workflows, noting that the key impact will depend on customer configuration and organisational processes.
Details on what this means for relevant primary and community care solutions are below.
Communicare
Recent updates to Communicare (version 23.3) are geared at strengthening Assignment of Benefit workflows. These are designed to make it easier to capture, review and manage consent information within routine care delivery, across both pre- and post-AoB.
A new Pre-Assignment of Benefit (Pre-AOB) workflow will be introduced in July 2026. This enhancement allows services, particularly Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs), to capture patient consent before a service is delivered, aimed at reducing administrative follow-up and ensuring consent is in place prior to claim submission.
The Pre-AoB workflow uses configurable clinical items and templates to:
- Support identity and consent capture
- Assist with AoB-aligned agreements
- Link those agreements to specific episodes of care.
This helps to improve visibility within the clinical record and will see completed agreements stored within the patient record and made visible to staff where needed.
For Communicare customers, further information is available in the Communicare Customer Portal and Knowledge Centre.
MedicalDirector Clinical, Pracsoft, Bluechip and Helix
Version 4.2 and above of MedicalDirector Clinical, our on-premise clinical management software, and Pracsoft, our on-premise practice management software, are designed to support the upcoming Assignment of Benefit requirements. Practices can continue to bulk bill using their existing workflows, where appropriately configured.
Future versions of Clinical and Pracsoft will further enhance existing bulk billing workflows.
As a cloud-based solution, Helix will continue to receive updates designed to support evolving AoB changes. A new release deployed in late June 2026, will introduce a new AoB form and report for completing audit trails.
Furthermore, we are working with integration partners relevant to Clinical, Pracsoft and Helix to support both pre- and post-Assignment of Benefit-related workflows.
Bluechip, our specialist practice management software, is also designed to support upcoming Assignment of Benefit requirements.
PowerHealth PowerBilling and Revenue Collection (PBRC)
For PowerHealth customers who use our patient billing solution, PBRC, the changes introduce more structured data capture and audit expectations when processing Medicare claims. This reinforces the existing shared responsibility between systems and organisational processes.
PBRC is designed to support Medicare Assignment of Benefit requirements and has a defined upgrade pathway.
What to expect next?
Looking ahead, the Enduring Assignment of Benefit (currently expected by the Australian Government to commence from 2027), subject to final design and implementation, is intended to allow consent to apply across multiple visits. This aims to reduce repetitive administrative tasks and simplifying the patient experience.
Where to find further information?
For further details on the upcoming Assignment of Benefit changes, we recommend reviewing the Australian Government’s official guidance.
This article provides a general overview of the upcoming Assignment of Benefit changes and how they may impact Telstra Health customers, based on publicly available Australian Government materials. Health services should seek professional advice when assessing how these changes apply to their organisation.