MBS telehealth item numbers cheat sheet for GPs

Current GP video and phone items

GP video attendance items

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For Level B to E video items, the listed activities cover the relevant patient history, necessary investigations, implementing a management plan or appropriate preventive care. The history requirements differ by item: short, detailed or extensive. Meeting a time threshold alone does not establish the service.

Level C telehealth by video is item 91801, with a minimum of 20 minutes. The Level C and D descriptors specify minimum times, without a 39-minute or 59-minute maximum respectively.

GP phone attendance items

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A 20-minute phone consult does not automatically qualify for item 91900. Items 91900 and 91910 require MyMedicare registration with the billing practice. Registration elsewhere, a prior face-to-face attendance or a general telehealth exemption cannot replace that item-specific condition.

Item 91891 has no 20-minute ceiling. There is no ordinary GP Level E phone counterpart in the GP attendance matrix.

What counts towards attendance time?

Only clinically relevant work performed while you are on the video or phone attendance with the patient counts. Relevant note-writing, prescriptions or referrals can count while the patient is present. Preparation and paperwork completed after the patient has left the attendance do not extend its time tier. The time-tiered attendance rules also require a more specific item where one describes the service.

Ordinary telehealth attendances require the patient. Specific Better Access family or carer services have their own patient-absent item conditions; they do not create a general carer-only GP consultation exception.

Eligibility for ordinary GP telehealth

For the ordinary items, the telehealth eligibility rules provide three routes:

• MyMedicare registered practice: the patient is registered and receives the service from that practice. This route does not also require a face-to-face attendance in the previous 12 months.
• Eligible telehealth practitioner: the GP meets the qualifying prior face-to-face relationship requirements.
• Scoped exemption: a patient or service exemption applies, with the item's other conditions still met.

The qualifying face-to-face relationship

An eligible telehealth practitioner has provided a face-to-face service to the patient in the previous 12 months, or is located at a medical or nurse practitioner practice that arranged a qualifying service in that period. For the practitioner's own prior service, the AskMBS relationship guidance specifies that it was billed to Medicare.

The practice-arranged service must be MBS-billed. It can be provided by another medical or nurse practitioner at the practice, or by a health professional there on behalf of a medical practitioner. Eligible examples include practice nurses and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and health practitioners. Previous video or phone attendances do not qualify.

The Approved Medical Deputising Service (AMDS) route requires a participating GP employed by an AMDS provider with a formal agreement with a practice that provided the qualifying face-to-face service within the previous 12 months. The AskMBS relationship guidance sets out the conditions.

Patient exemptions and their limits

The patient exemptions remove the ordinary eligible-practitioner requirement, within these boundaries:

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Services Australia's eligibility guidance identifies the patient groups. The patient exemption definitions set out the homelessness and current-disaster conditions.

Service-specific exceptions

Exemptions also apply to particular services, rather than every consultation about the same condition:

• Focussed psychological strategies: specified Better Access treatment items have an exemption. Preparing a mental health treatment plan does not retain the former exemption, and there is no blanket exemption for all mental-health consults. The non-referred telehealth factsheet distinguishes these services.
• Eating-disorder services: the exception covers specified plan, review and psychological-treatment subgroups, not an ordinary attendance relabelled as eating-disorder care. The scope is Group A40 subgroups 21 and 25 to 28 in the determination, section 7(6A).
• Blood-borne virus, sexual or reproductive health: the dedicated telehealth items have their own service-specific rules. Assisted reproductive technology and antenatal care are excluded from that item family.
• Urgent unsociable-hours video: item 92210 has separate request and urgency conditions.
• GP chronic condition management plans: preparation and review follow their own MyMedicare and usual-practitioner requirements.

The narrow Commonwealth Urgent Care Clinic exception covers specified video items at Kimberley Medical Group in Broome and My Clinic Plus in Devonport. It requires a GP engaged to provide clinic services under the program, during program operating hours, with no GP or participating nurse practitioner in attendance to provide the service in person.

The statutory clinic conditions specify the eligible items. This is not a blanket clinic exemption.

Modality, patient and location requirements

Video is preferred, and phone services require an available item and clinical appropriateness, under Services Australia's modality guidance. Both require capacity to deliver the full service safely under professional standards.

Video requires a maintained audio and visual link; phone requires an audio link. For video, the practitioner must also be satisfied that the software and hardware meet applicable privacy and security laws. These are telehealth modality requirements.

Ordinary GP telehealth is unavailable for admitted hospital patients or when the patient or provider is overseas at the time of service, even if a relationship route or exemption otherwise applies. The AskMBS eligibility advisory sets out these exclusions.

MBS telehealth after-hours item numbers

Ordinary attendances outside business hours

Ordinary eligible GP video and phone items can be used outside business hours. The communication method, service, attendance time and eligibility conditions still determine the item. An evening, weekend or public holiday does not turn a remote attendance into an in-person after-hours item. The ordinary attendance principles apply across business hours and after-hours.

Urgent video in unsociable hours

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The official telehealth factsheet distinguishes this urgent unsociable-hours video service from ordinary attendances. Item 92210 is not a phone item. There is no current GP urgent unsociable-hours phone counterpart. In-person codes such as 585, 599 and the 5000 series belong in the general MBS cheat sheet, outside this telehealth lookup.

Dedicated GP telehealth services

GP chronic condition management plans

A GP chronic condition management plan (GPCCMP) has dedicated video items:

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These are complete plan services, rather than general attendance time tiers. MyMedicare-registered patients must receive them through their registered practice. Patients who are not registered use their usual medical practitioner, under the definition in the GPCCMP eligibility rules. The ordinary 12-month telehealth relationship test does not replace those requirements.

The official GPCCMP requirements set out the current plan workflow. Our historical 2025 transition background covers the framework's introduction.

Mental health treatment plan preparation

GP mental health treatment plan (MHTP) video preparation items depend on duration and mental health skills training:

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Preparation has its own MyMedicare or usual-medical-practitioner conditions and is subject to telehealth eligibility. Review, referral and ongoing mental-health care use appropriate general attendance items, with the Better Access practitioner-linkage rules still applying. The former dedicated review and ongoing consultation items have been removed. Our mental-health care-plan guide covers the full workflow.

Other dedicated services also retain their own requirements. For example, video health assessment 92004 has specific activities and frequency limits for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health assessments. Ordinary attendance rules do not substitute for those conditions.

Upcoming: GPCCMP phone items from 1 November 2026

The following items are not available before 1 November 2026.

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The GPCCMP phone amendment introduces these GP services from that date. The November MBS changes also announce the new phone item family. They do not authorise a GPCCMP phone claim for an October service.

A short telehealth documentation checklist

The MBS record-keeping principles set out standards for adequate, contemporaneous records. As a practical documentation aid, record:

• Modality: video or phone, reflecting the attendance delivered.
• Attendance time: actual time on the attendance with the patient performing clinically relevant work, where the item is time-tiered.
• Required activity: the service delivered and the relevant descriptor activities, including any dedicated plan or assessment work.
• Clinical reasoning: the assessment and decisions supporting the service.
• Eligibility basis: the registered-practice route, qualifying prior face-to-face relationship, or applicable exemption. For an exemption, record it and the clinical reasoning at the time of service, as required by note AN.1.1.

These points help make the record clear. Completing the checklist alone does not establish eligibility or satisfy every item requirement.

Keep the clinical record under your review

Clinical judgement and an accurate patient record remain your responsibility. Our clinical notes workflow turns dictation and typed notes into structured drafts for your review, editing and sign-off. Eligibility and the item claimed remain separate practice responsibilities.

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