“Some doctors bulk bill, some do not. Why is that?”
A patient asked us this under a Facebook post in September 2026. It is one of the questions we hear most often in the clinic, and it sits inside the wider argument about how general practice is funded in Australia, so here is the full answer.
Your doctor decides, in the room
Each doctor makes the billing call themselves, in the room, in the moment. They are looking at someone they know, with a pension card on file or three kids in tow, and they know what a gap means for that family’s budget. So they often bulk bill. That is a human reaction, not a practice policy, and it is why the same patient can be bulk billed one visit and charged a gap the next, depending on who they see and what the visit was for.
Why there are only two options
Medicare pays bulk billing incentives on top of the standard rebate, but only when the visit is bulk billed. Charge any gap, however small, and every cent of the incentive disappears.
That leaves the doctor two options. Either the patient loses access to the full rebate, meaning the rebate plus the incentives, and pays a larger gap; or the practice absorbs the difference between what the rebate pays and what the visit costs to provide.
Why the rebate does not cover the visit
The rebate rises more slowly than the costs it is meant to meet. On 1 July 2026 rebates rose 2.6 per cent; the same day, award wages rose 4.75 per cent. The longer and more complex the consultation, the further the rebate falls behind what it costs to provide. We set out the history in our June 2026 article on Medicare.
What is bulk billed as a matter of course
Some care is bulk billed as standard, and it tends to be the care the people who need us most rely on.
- Planned care for a chronic condition. If you have a condition that has been with you, or is likely to be with you, for six months or more, your regular planned care under a Chronic Condition Management Plan is bulk billed.
- Health assessments, if you qualify for one. Eligibility depends on age and circumstances, and your doctor or our nurses can tell you whether you do.
Because this care is planned and documented, Medicare pays a higher rebate for it, and that is what lets us bulk bill it. Planned care also lets us involve our nursing team and saves you the extra visit for a forgotten script or an expired referral.
If cost is getting in the way
Tell your doctor. Each doctor has the discretion to accept a lower consultation fee where cost is a real barrier to care, and they would rather know than have you put a visit off.
Please ask your doctor rather than reception. The front desk cannot change a doctor’s billing decision.
Our current fees and billing policy are on our fees page.
