Maintaining access to GP rebates under Medicare

Under the new arrangements, GPs’ access to Medicare is now determined by their continued registration status with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra). Practitioners, who are registered in the specialty of General Practice, no longer need to have their eligibility for A1 Medicare rebates confirmed by either the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners or the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine.

Provided a medical practitioner registered in the specialty of General Practice continues to meet their requirements for registration they will retain their A1 status. As part of the standard for registration practitioners must meet the requirements for CPD set by their relevant college.

For GPs Medicare eligibility is now automatically linked to their registration status and not subject to whether the practitioner continues to be recognised as a Fellow of their college.

From 1 January 2023 the revised standards for CPD come into effect. These new standards require medical practitioners to:  

• complete the CPD Program of an accredited CPD home;
• develop a written annual professional development plan; 
• complete a minimum of 50 hours per year of CPD activities that are relevant to your scope of practice and individual professional development needs; 
• allocate your minimum 50 hours per year between the following types of CPD activities: 
  • at least 12.5hours(25percentoftheminimum) in educational activities; 
  • at least 25 hours (50 per cent of the minimum) in activities focused on reviewing performance and measuring outcomes, with a minimum of five hours for each category; and  
  • the remaining 12.5hours (25 percent of the minimum), and any CPD activities over the 50-hour minimum across any of these types of CPD activity; 
• self-evaluate your CPD activity at the end of the year as you prepare your professional development plan for the next year; and  
• retain records of your annual CPD activity for audit by your CPD home and the Board for three years after the end of each one-year cycle;  
• including program-level requirements, and any relevant specialist high-level requirements.  

With the process underway for the accreditation of CPD homes, 2023 will be a transition year in which medical practitioners can opt to follow a CPD home. From 1 January 2024 it will be mandatory for all non-exempt medical practitioners to have a CPD home. AMA (WA) is seeking accreditation as a CPD home and, if successful, look forward to supporting non-exempt medical practitioners with meeting their CPD compliance for continued medical registration into the future.