Assignment of Benefit Changes FAQ

Assignment of Benefit (AoB) refers to the process by which a patient authorises Medicare to pay their benefit directly to the healthcare provider, rather than reimbursing the patient. This arrangement streamlines payments to providers and reduces administrative effort for both patients and practices.

Some of the key changes being introduced include:

• Electronic Forms: Providers will be able to generate and send electronic forms via SMS to patients to assign their benefits through web forms on their own devices.
• Pre and Post-Assignment Flexibility: New digital options will allow benefits to be assigned when booking a service (pre-assignment) or after a service has occurred (post-assignment), rather than strictly during the attendance.
• Basic Service Description: For episodic pre-assignment agreements, a 'basic service description' will be the minimum required information. Approximately 4,600 MBS items have been mapped into 16 categories (e.g., GP – Standard, Specialist – Procedure) to provide patients with meaningful information while maintaining flexibility for providers.
• Record Retention: Providers will be required to retain a copy of the completed/signed agreement for 2 years.

Paper-based workflows can be slow, prone to errors, and difficult to manage, especially as telehealth and digital health services become more common. Legal compliance is also complicated by evolving requirements for consent, particularly with the rise of electronic and verbal agreements. Audits revealed shortcomings in consent procedures and record-keeping, especially when verbal consent was obtained during telehealth sessions.

These limitations highlight the need more integrated digital solutions, clearer legal standards, and processes that better support both providers and patients in a rapidly changing healthcare environment.

No. DVA does not use Medicare's Assignment of Benefit process. It has its own separate claiming system with its own item numbers, payment rules, and consent requirements.

For more information about DVA provider claiming, visit the Department of Veterans’ Affairs website.

Providers will be required to retain the completed/signed agreement for 2 years for each Assignment of Benefit consent request. This retention period is essential for meeting audit and compliance requirements.

To prepare for Assignment of Benefit changes in your practice:

1. Decide now how you’re going to implement this in your practice.
2. Review your policies and processes, e.g. for end of day billing “sign off” before batching.
3. Start using a paper process now so your patients get used to assigning their benefit for bulk billing.
4. Check that you have your SMS ID registered with ACMA.
5. Make sure your third party products are ready and utilise your comms channels and online booking notices.
6. Review the Bp Premier Oxford system requirements.
7. Educate your clinicians and make sure your patients are ready.
8. Utilise the Assignment of Benefit and Sender ID Resources such as waiting room posters and pamphlets for patient education.
9. Update Bp Premier when the program update and July Data Updates are available.

Before a service can be included in a Bulk Bill Batch, there must be a corresponding Assignment of Benefit recorded in Bp Premier. This includes both new services and claim vouchers, and claims rejected by Medicare that require resending.

The new legislation introduces more flexibility for when an Assignment of Benefit can be collected. ​​

• Pre-Service Assignments, also known as a Pre-Assignment, allows you to collect a patient’s consent form before their consultation. This can be done through methods such as bulk SMS messages to be sent out of Bp Premier for future appointments. It can also be manually triggered from the Appointment book. SeeSee Collect a Pre-Assignment of Benefit Form for more information. for more information.
• An Assignment of Benefit form can still be collected after the consult has occurred during your usual workflow for billing. This is now referred to as a Post-service assignment or Post-assignment. See See Collect a Post-Assignment of Benefit Form for more information. for more information.

To facilitate a pre-service assignment, a Basic Service Description has been introduced to provide patients with meaningful information about what they are consenting to, while still maintaining flexibility for billing providers.​​

This system groups 4,600+ MBS items into 16 Basic Service Description groups, such as ‘GP - Care Plans’, ‘GP – Standard’, or ‘Allied Health'.​

In Bp Premier, you will be able to link a Basic Service Description to each of your appointment types, which can then be used when generating forms to represent the group of MBS items that they consent to assign their benefit for.​​

If the service actually rendered falls within that Basic Service Description group, the assignment is valid. However, if the rendered service falls outside of that Basic Service Description group, a new post-service Assignment of Benefit must be captured for those MBS items billed.

No, if the basic service description for the approved form is different to the service provided, for example, a GP Standard type appointment was booked but turned into a GP Long consult or care plan review, a new AOB form must be generated and completed.

For pre-assignment agreements, a new concept called the Basic Service Description has been introduced to provide patients with meaningful information while allowing providers clinical flexibility. This system maps approximately 4,600 Medicare Benefits Schedule items into 16 broad categories, including standard GP attendances, care plans, and specialist procedures.

In Bp Premier Oxford, it is used when bulk sending pre-Assignment of Benefit SMS requests. Basic service descriptions are configured to appointments types used for bulk billed appointments.

Digital forms will be able to be sent via SMS and paper forms will be able to be printed before and after the consult. See Collect a Pre-Assignment of Benefit Form and Collect a Post-Assignment of Benefit Form for more information.

Requests will be managed through a new Follow up Assignment of Benefits screen available to users with Add/Edit/Delete permissions for Direct Billing. See Follow Up Assignment of Benefit for more information.

There will be instances where a new Assignment of Benefit must be collected before a rejected service can be re-included within a batch, and resent to Medicare for processing, such as when an item number is changed

The Medicare Online Claiming screen will include a workflow to identify when a new Assignment of Benefit must be collected from the patient to reprocess a claim, and to enable you to send this to the patient via a Bp Comms SMS, or to print a paper form ready for the patient’s signature.

See Generating a new Assignment of Benefit for a rejected claim for more information.

If there is no approved Assignment of Benefit attached to the claim it cannot be sent.

• If it is a Printed form, you can manually mark the form as Approved from the Follow Up Assignment of Benefit screen.
• If by SMS, you can use the check for updates button to update the status from the Direct bill batch screen or the Follow up Assignment of Benefits screen. This poll occurs automatically every 10 minutes but can be manually run using this button. This will update the status to Approved if the patient has approved the AoB request.
• If the request is Managed externally and still Pending, you can Resend the request from the Follow up Assignment of Benefits screen via Printer or Bp Comms SMS.
• If using a Tyro terminal, it is entirely external and claiming is done via Tyro. See the Tyro Health website for more information.

The exception to this rule is if the AoB status for the claim is “Printed – Pending”. In this case, the provider is confirming that patients have assigned right to benefits to the Practitioner, and the status is updated to Approved when they click ‘Send batch’ from the Direct bill batch screen.

Once a printed form has been marked as approved the status cannot be changed. A new form can be generated by adjusting the invoice or service details from the Patient Billing History.

Not all patients will be able to complete an assignment themselves. The new forms ask the question, ‘Is the assignor the patient?’, to capture when the assignment has been completed by somebody acting on the patient’s behalf.

This can be done for children/minors or patients who lack the capacity to complete this independently.

Practices need to have their own policies and procedures in place for managing Assignment of Benefit (AoB) consent. These policies should cover how consent will be handled for residents in aged care facilities and for patients who cannot provide consent due to a medical condition, a sensitive condition, or because the patient is deceased.

For authoritative guidance on the Medicare Assignment of Benefit process, including who can act as a responsible person and how to manage consent when a patient cannot sign, refer to the Services Australia website.

If you require clarification about interpreting Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items or related legislation, you can contact AskMBS. This service provides official advice to help providers understand and comply with MBS billing requirements.

• For questions about interpreting the MBS: email askMBS@health.gov.au
• For questions about Medicare billing, claiming, payments, or provider numbers: contact Services Australia on the Provider Enquiry Line: 13 21 50.

If a patient chooses not to assign their Medicare benefit or does not complete the assignment, the practice will need to follow up with them to explain what this means and to arrange an alternative method of payment.

Immediate Impact and Software Notification in Bp Premier Oxford:

• Status Update: In Bp Premier, the Assignment of Benefit (AoB) request status will automatically be updated to Declined.
• Visual Alerts: An icon will appear on the patient's appointment in the Appointment book to visually alert staff that the request was declined.

Follow-Up Procedures

Practices will be able to manage declined requests through a dedicated 'Follow up Assignment of Benefit' screen. The typical actions include:

• Discussing Alternatives: Practice staff will contact the patient to discuss alternative payment arrangements, as the service cannot be bulk-billed without assignment.
• Identifying Errors: Patients are encouraged to contact the practice if they decline because the details on the form (such as the doctor's name or the service description) are incorrect.
• Amending and Regenerating: If the decline was due to an error, the practice can amend the patient's demographic information, select the correct MBS item, and then regenerate and resend a new digital link or print a corrected paper form.

Billing and Financial Consequences

• Claiming Restrictions: A voucher with Declined status is disabled and greyed out on the online claiming screen, preventing it from being included in a batch sent to Medicare for bulk billing.
• Out-of-Pocket Costs: Staff may inform the patient that failure to complete the assignment may result in them being out of pocket for the service provided. This is because the Assignment of Benefit is the legal agreement that allows the provider to accept the Medicare rebate as full payment.

No, you do not have to collect an Assignment of Benefit via SMS.

An updated paper-based workflow will be available in Bp Premier alongside the new digital workflows for instances where you would prefer a patient to physically sign a paper form, or for patients who do not have access to an electronic device.

Yes, digital AoB SMS messages are charged at the default rate of 4 cents ($0.04) per SMS. Reach out to our Bp Sales team to discuss options for a Bp Comms pack that suits your needs.

When editing templates, practices should monitor the character count for each template type, as longer messages may result in the use of multiple SMS credits when sending AoB requests.

If you use an external SMS messages service, set your Default Assignment of Benefit generation channel as Managed Externally. See Set up Assignment of Benefit for more information.

No, Comms Consent does not need to be recorded to send Assignment of Benefit forms via SMS. The Mobile Number recorded in the Patient Details will populate when sending AoB via SMS.

Bp Comms packs are purchased inclusive of GST. The individual AoB SMS request is sent exclusive of GST.

It is not mandatory for practices to have a registered Sender ID to send Assignment of Benefit requests via Bp Comms or through a third party messaging provider, but practices should strongly consider obtaining one.

If the practice does not have a Sender ID, messages will appear as "unverified" and will be grouped together in a single message thread on recipients' phones. This signals to recipients that the message might be a scam, which could significantly reduce the effectiveness of your patient communications and increase the risk of Assignment of Benefit request links being missed by patients.

See the Knowledge Base article Bp Comms Alpha Tag Changes 1 July 2026 for more information.

If your clinic uses Tyro your AoB workflows will be entirely external to Bp Premier. Appointment book status icons will not be updated and the status of requests will not be seen in the Follow up assignment of benefit screen. Claiming is done through Tyro so there will be no AoB processes in Bp Premier.

Use of Tyro Health EFTPOS machines to process bulk bill claims via Medicare Easyclaim is compliant with the updated AoB requirements.

TIP    See the Tyro Health website for more information.

If AoB requests are managed externally by a third party that is not integrated into Bp Premier, there will be no restrictions in the Direct bill batching screen.

If they are an integrated partner with Bp Premier, the status of the AoB request (patient has accepted or declined) will be updated in Bp Premier for managed externally records. For compliance with new AOB requirements, pending or declined records will not be able to be batched until AOB acceptance is confirmed.

You can resend an AOB request from Bp Premier by printing the form at any time, or resend by SMS for Bp Comms users.

Check with your third-party provider for their processes on Assignment of Benefit requests.

If you are using a third-party provider to generate and collect signed Assignment of Benefit requests, they do not need to be also generated in Bp Premier.

Reach out to your third-party provider to learn more about their processes for AoB. Each of our partners are working to update their own Assignment of Benefit solutions to include updated AoB form requirements and electronic alternatives for AoB.

If you are using a third-party provider to manage assignment of benefit requests they do not need to be managed in Bp Premier.

This feature is configured by the user but enabled automatically after 01 July for users who have upgraded to Bp Premier Oxford.

These features are enabled to assist our users to remain compliant to the Australian Government legal requirements for bulk billing.

From 1 July 2026, the existing ‘approved forms’ (DB4e and DB020) will no longer meet the requirements for a valid Assignment of Benefit (AoB) agreement. Services Australia will make example templates available on its website to assist providers.

See the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DoHDA) website for their official Frequently Asked Questions document.

Pre-Assignment of Benefit requests and SMS digital requests are both optional. It is not mandatory to use the pre-Assignment of Benefit forms or to send requests via SMS. The Send Assignment of Benefit form requests utility is not automated at this stage.

If you are using a third-party provider to generate assignment of benefit requests they do not need to be generated in Bp Premier.

Reach out to your third-party provider to learn more about their processes for AoB. Each of our partners are working to update their own Assignment of Benefit solutions to include updated AoB form requirements and electronic alternatives for AoB.

Pre-assignment of benefit requests and SMS digital requests are both optional. It is not mandatory to use the pre-assignment of benefit forms or to send requests via SMS. The Send assignment of benefit form requests utility is not automated at this stage.

Reach out to your third-party provider to learn more about their processes for AoB. Each of our partners are working to update their own Assignment of Benefit solutions to include updated AoB form requirements and electronic alternatives for AoB.

In this update the forms can only be printed or sent via SMS. The ability to email an Assignment of Benefit form from Bp Premier will be introduced in a future update.

To email a form in an email client external to Bp Premier, select Printer when generating the form and use Print to PDF to generate a PDF of the form that can be attached in an email. The patient can print the form to sign and then scan and send back to the clinic.

There is no ability in Bp Premier.

• Printed forms do not need to be scanned into Bp Premier.
• To view an Approved AoB form sent via SMS with Bp Comms, go to the Follow up assignment of benefit screen, highlight the record, and click the View button.
• Speak with your third party provider if your Assignment of Benefit forms are Managed externally.

Yes, when finalising a visit or updating an invoice from the account details screen, Bp Premier will notify the user if the MBS items selected do not match the basic service description that was approved in the Pre-assignment of benefit form.

For authoritative guidance on the Medicare Assignment of Benefit process, including who can act as a responsible person and how to manage consent when a patient cannot sign, refer to the Services Australia website.

Evidence of authority to sign on the patient's behalf is not collected on the form, but could be requested in an audit.

• Multiple items can be covered in a single Pre-Assignment of Benefit form if they have the same Basic Service Description.
• In a Post Assignment of Benefit form, all items invoiced will be listed on a single form.

There is no limit to how many times an AoB SMS request form can be resent before it is approved. The link sent in the original message is valid for 30 days. Each time a message is resent Bp Comms credits are used.

No, the SMS message sent for an Assignment of Benefit form includes a link that must be opened in a web browser application (such as Safari or Chrome) to complete.

For patients who do not have a mobile device but will not be present in the clinic, select Printer when generating the form and use Print to PDF to generate a PDF of the form that can be attached in an email. The patient can print the form to sign and then scan and send back to the clinic.

No, the Pre-assignment of benefit form is optional.

The Assignment of Benefit collection process is the same for nurses as it is for providers. There are different Basic Service Descriptions for nurses to use if collecting a Pre-assignment of benefit form. If provider and nursing items are being billed together on the same invoice, a post assignment of benefit form can be used.

There is no limit to how far in advance a Pre-assignment of benefit can be sent. The link sent in the AoB SMS is valid for 30 days.

Yes, you can use a pre-assignment of benefit for any item with a basic service description.

ECG items do not have a basic service description, a pre-assignment of benefit form cannot be created for ECG items. A pre-assignment of benefit form can only be created for a single basic service description.