Most people who come here do so with a Mental Health Treatment Plan. It is a straightforward process, but almost nobody explains it before you are in the middle of it.
A Mental Health Treatment Plan is a document your GP prepares with you. It sets out what you are dealing with, what you would like to change, and refers you to a practitioner. It is what unlocks the Medicare rebate under the Better Access initiative.
When you ring the surgery, ask specifically for a mental health care plan appointment. Say that is what it is for. Practices book these differently from an ordinary consultation and set time aside for them, and simply asking for a long appointment often gets you the wrong booking. Psychiatrists and paediatricians can also refer, and a referral from one of them works the same way.
The referral does not have to name a person, and even where it does, you are not locked in to whoever is named. A plan can be used with any practitioner here, and changing your mind about who you see — before or after the first appointment — costs you nothing and needs no new referral.
One date matters. The plan has to be dated on or before the day of your session. A plan written after the appointment cannot be used to claim it, and the rebate cannot be backdated. So if your GP appointment falls after the therapy appointment, move the therapy appointment rather than the other way round.
Your GP issues the first referral for six sessions. That is the rule rather than caution on your GP's part — six is all a Better Access referral can cover to begin with. Once those are used you return for a review consultation, and if you both think more would help, a further four are released. Ten individual sessions in a calendar year is the total, with up to ten group sessions on top of that.
Book the review before you reach your sixth session so there is no gap in your treatment. Some practices handle a review in a standard consultation and others want a longer one — ask when you book, because it varies from surgery to surgery.
The count resets on 1 January. Unused sessions do not carry over into the next year, and the allowance is per person per year rather than per plan or per practitioner — so changing practitioner part way through does not reset it.
Ten sessions is what Medicare subsidises, not a limit on how long you may attend. Some people finish inside six. Others continue privately once the subsidised sessions are used, and your practitioner will be upfront with you about which of those is likely well before you get there.
Most practices send the plan and referral straight through to us after your GP appointment, and that is the smoothest version of this — by the time you arrive it is already on file. It does not always happen, so ask for a copy at the surgery and bring it to your first session, or email it ahead to info@onebodymind.com.au. That one piece of paper is the difference between claiming on the day and paying the full fee while we chase it.
We need the plan on file before we can claim, so an appointment that goes ahead without it is billed at the full fee until it arrives.
From there the administration is ours, not yours. We lodge each claim for you at the time of the appointment — immediately back to your account if you are seen in person during reception hours, or within 24 business hours if we claim online for an after-hours or telehealth appointment. You never need to visit a Medicare office or submit anything yourself. There is more detail on what a session costs.
Telehealth appointments attract the same rebates as face-to-face ones under the same plan, so if you are unwell, interstate or simply cannot get across town, the session still counts and still attracts the rebate.
You are welcome to book without one. No referral is needed to see anyone here privately, there is no waiting for a GP appointment first, and some people prefer to keep the arrangement entirely between themselves and their practitioner — nothing is recorded with Medicare when you pay privately.
What you give up is the rebate. If you think you will attend more than once or twice, the GP appointment usually pays for itself quickly.
No. You can book privately at any time. A GP referral with a Mental Health Treatment Plan is only needed if you want the Medicare rebate.
Ten individual sessions per calendar year, plus up to ten group sessions. Your GP refers you for six to start with; the remaining four are released after a review consultation.
The plan does not lapse at a fixed date, but the session allowance resets each 1 January and a review consultation is needed once the first six sessions are used.
Yes. Even where a referral names one practitioner, you may see a different one here without going back to your GP, and the ten-session allowance is yours for the year rather than tied to one person.
No. The plan has to be dated on or before the day of the session, and the rebate cannot be backdated. Move the therapy appointment to a date after the GP one.
Yes. Telehealth appointments attract the same rebate as in-person ones and count towards the same allowance.
You can continue privately at the full fee. Your practitioner will raise this with you well before the sessions run out so it is never a surprise.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call Lifeline on 13 11 14, or 000 in an emergency. OneBodyMind is not a crisis service. Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636.