nonVR Medicare Provider Number Application Overview

Medicare is Australia’s universal health insurance scheme. Medicare workforce rules prescribe where IMGs are able to work as a General Practitioner in Australia.

Medicare provides the bulk of income for you as a General Practitioner, so you will need to have a valid Medicare Provider Number.

Why apply for a nonVR Provider Number?

On the PEP Specialist Pathway, after you have received your Immigration Documentation, you can complete the RACGP Part C, and RACGP will lodge the application for your Medicare Provider Number.

The PartC process can take several weeks, so that some GP practices are applying for a “Temporary Visa Provider Number” as well.

·     Pros – This will mean that the new GP can start work in their practice several weeks faster than they would have.

·     Cons – The Medicare income is called A7, that’s 80% of the full A1 Medicare rebate for some types of consultations.

You need all the same documentation. While waiting for your Immigration to be completed, you can fill in, and sign, the Medicare Provider Number Form (HW019) 

The doctor needs to complete questions 1-15 and sign manually on the last page (please ask us your queries), we will make sure the remaining questions are filled in correctly.

Then, once you have received your Visa Confirmation, you need to:

·     Complete Part C on the RACGP Portal, and

·     Email these documents to provider.registration@servicesaustralia.gov.au

o  Personal page of your passport

o  Visa confirmation – from Immigration)

o  Copy of your Current Medical Registration – from AHPRA

o  Letter of Support From Practice

o  Completed and signed Medicare Provider Number Form (HW019)

Then your final wait for the Medicare Provider Number processing team begins.

From 24 hours after the email has been sent to the Medicare Provider Number team, we can call the phone number 132150 (choose option #6), and you can confirm that they have received these documents, ask them to check and make sure they aren’t missing any documents, and also ask what their current number of processing days is.

At different times of the year, and with higher or lower workloads, this final process can take 30, 20, or perhaps 10 working days.

For planning purposes, until it speeds up, we would recommend that you allow 30 working days for processing.

The current number of processing days for Medicare Provider Numbers is listed here: https://doctorconnect.blog/3vLX0jL

Usually, in the final two weeks of waiting for the Medicare Provider Number, GPs on the PEP Specialist Pathway plan to arrive, visit their practice, meet their supervisor, and settle into other parts of their new life.

Please contact us with your queries.