Australia

Mon Apr 7

MyMedicare promises better health care. But only 1 in 10 patients has signed up

Written by Jialing Lin, Research fellow, International Centre for Future Health Systems, UNSW Sydney

MyMedicare is a scheme that encourages patients to register with a regular GP practice to improve their health. But few patients have enrolled.

Since its launch in October 2023, only about 10% of patients have signed up.

The Albanese government’s 2023-24 budget allocated A$19.7 million over four years ^[1] to implement MyMedicare. So if we are to get value for money from the scheme, we need to find out why patients are not signing up, and address any barriers to them doing so.

Other countries have similar schemes, as we outline in recent research ^[2]. Here’s what we can learn from these to boost uptake of MyMedicare in Australia.

What is MyMedicare?

MyMedicare ^[3] is a voluntary patient registration scheme. Patients nominate a GP or GP practice as their preferred provider and see the same GP or health-care team over time, a concept known as “continuity of care”.

Continuity of care is linked to ^[4] earlier detection of health issues, better management of chronic (long-term) conditions, fewer avoidable hospital visits, and improved patient satisfaction.

Patients registered for MyMedicare have longer telehealth consultations ^[5]. People living in residential aged care have more regular visits from their GP. From July this year, GP practices may offer patients more support for their chronic diseases ^[6].

There are also benefits for GP clinics ^[7] that sign up for MyMedicare. They receive incentives to offer certain patients longer telehealth consultations. Practices also receive incentives ^[8] to manage the health of registered aged care patients.

These incentives help practices invest in improved services and resources. From July, this may include better chronic disease management ^[9] and enhanced team-based care (for instance, better liaison between GPs and allied health workers as part of someone’s health team).

Female doctors with stethoscope around neck looking at smartphone

MyMedicare comes with an extra boost for telehealth. fizkes/Shutterstock ^[10]

How many patients have signed up?

Since MyMedicare’s launch in 2023 until March 19 this year, more than 2.6 million patients have registered for MyMedicare, according to Department of Health and Aged Care statistics provided to The Conversation.

That’s about 10%^[11] of Australia’s population. This raises concerns about how aware patients are of the scheme, how engaged they are with it, and possible barriers to registration.

GP practices that provide services to patients who would benefit from the new longer telehealth services or provide care to people in aged care were encouraged ^[12] to register those patients in MyMedicare as a priority. So perhaps other patients have yet to sign up.

GP practices have been quicker to sign up. Since its launch, health department statistics provided to The Conversation show 6,469 practices had registered for MyMedicare until March 19 this year.

That’s about 80%^[13] of GP practices in Australia.

Who’s most likely to register?

We don’t know which patient groups sign up for MyMedicare. The health department told The Conversation patients can provide details of their sex, location (such as metropolitan, regional, rural and remote areas), linguistic background, and disabilities when they sign up. But this is voluntary, and these data have only been available for collection since March 2024.

However, here’s what we learned ^[14] when we looked at other countries’ patient enrolment schemes:

men are less likely to enrol than women, and recent immigrants have significantly lower registration rates compared to long-term residents. These highlight potential barriers to access for certain populations
patients in suburban, rural or small urban areas have higher registration rates, whereas those in large metropolitan centres and lower socioeconomic groups register less
patients with mental illness or substance use disorders have lower registration rates, pointing to challenges in engaging vulnerable populations.

Elderly man paying for health care at doctor's reception

Men are less likely to enrol than women. DC Studio/Shutterstock ^[15]

How do other countries do it?

We also looked ^[16] at how other countries set up their schemes to see what we can learn.

New Zealand: high uptake through financial incentives

New Zealand ^[17] has successfully implemented a voluntary patient registration system by offering incentives to enrolled patients. These include lower co-payments for consultations and cheaper prescriptions.

This approach encourages people to register with a general practice rather than a specific GP. Some 95% of the population was registered by January 2025.

Quebec, Canada: tailored registration programs, but low uptake

Quebec ^[18] has several voluntary registration programs ^[19] for different groups of patients. These include ones for family medicine, vulnerable patients and a general program.

However, registration rate remains low, at 14.7-32.2%^[20], depending on the program.

British Columbia, Canada: incentive-driven registration

British Columbia ^[21] offers three voluntary registration programs – one for chronic diseases, another for complex care and a general program.

These use “capitation funding”, where GPs receive payments based on the number of patients they care for.

Participation rates vary widely across the three programs, with 45.5-79% of the population registered.

The differences in registration rates across these systems highlight the importance of how schemes are designed and implemented.

What can Australia learn?

If MyMedicare is to improve access and continuity of care, targeted strategies – such as outreach for immigrants and lower-income groups, and better support for people with mental health issues – will be essential.

Australia could also look to how countries with higher rates of patients signing up have designed their systems. This could include considering whether more financial incentives for patients to enrol is warranted, which has been successful in New Zealand.