As we welcome the New Year, it’s a great time to take care of a few practical health admin tasks that can make a real difference over the year ahead. One of these is registering for the Medicare Safety Net, particularly for families.
The Medicare Safety Net helps individuals and families who have high out-of-pocket medical costs. Once you reach the annual threshold, Medicare may pay a higher benefit for certain out-of-hospital services for the remainder of the calendar year.
If you’re part of a family, registering together can help you reach the Safety Net threshold sooner, as eligible out-of-pocket costs for each family member are combined.
A “family” for Medicare Safety Net purposes can include:
Even if you were registered as a family last year, family and couple registrations do not automatically carry over into the new calendar year. This means you’ll need to re-register each year to ensure your family’s expenses are counted together.
Individual registrations generally carry over, but family registrations must be renewed annually.
You can register for the Medicare Safety Net or update your family details by:
It’s worth checking early in the year so everything is set up correctly if you need it later on.
From all of us at Rozelle Total Health, we wish you a happy, healthy start to the New Year, and we look forward to supporting you and your family throughout the year ahead.
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation and welcome all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to this practice.
