The latest Medicare data shows a short-term fall in GP bulk billing, but a slight long-term shift upward.
Over the last 12 months, GP bulk billing has continued on a shaky path upward – although it will still be months before we see the effects of the latest funding injection.
Medicare released its latest round of quarterly statistics on Monday, covering the beginning of June to the end of September 2025.
On a short-term basis – i.e., compared to the rate at the end of the previous financial quarter, which ended in June – there was a drop in the number of GP consults which were bulk billed.
Where the June quarter GP bulk billing rate was 79.2%, the September quarter average was 77.6%.
This is not overly surprising; over the previous two years, the bulk billing rate for the June quarter has consistently been higher than that of the September quarter.
However, a rate of 77.6% is still higher than that of the previous two quarters, which were 77.3% and 77.4% respectively.
Zooming out to the longer term, it’s worth noting that the September 2024 quarter also had an average GP bulk billing rate of 77.6%, signalling year-on-year stability.
The rolling bulk billing average tells a similar story.
Where the quarterly statistics only take into account the data that came in over a three month period, making it easier to track smaller ups and downs over a financial year, the rolling 12 month dataset takes into account the data from the whole preceding 12 months, giving a more general picture of whether bulk billing is trending up or down.
For the full 12 months leading up to September 2025, the average GP bulk billing rate was 77.9%, up from 76.4% the previous September.
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In other words, more GP services were bulk billed in the year leading up to September 2025 than were bulk billed in the year leading up to September 2024.
At the same time, the average patient contribution (i.e., gap fee) has also increased.
In the year leading up to September 2024, patients who were privately billed paid an average of $46.12 out-of-pocket, but in the year leading up to September 2025 they paid $50.15.
The last financial year was the first time that average out-of-pockets per quarter have cracked $50, increasing even in quarters where bulk billing was higher.
One possible explanation for this is that GPs who were charging smaller gap fees have increasingly converted to bulk billing. Another is that all GPs privately billing have had to increase gap fees to keep pace with inflation.
On a more granular level, chronic diseases continued to be the most commonly bulk billed GP appointment type, at 99.2%.
The September quarter was the first since the changes to GP chronic condition care plans which made review rebates equal to plan creation rebates, slightly lowering creation rebates in the process.
There was no corresponding drop in bulk billing rates for the service type, despite the change to the item value.
Of the time-based consult items, the most commonly bulk billed was a level A, at 88.8%.
Level B consults continued to make up the bulk of GP MBS services, with a bulk billing rate of 74.5%.
Whether or not GP bulk billing rates rise as a result of the government’s November 1 investments in bulk billing waits to be seen.
The next tranche of data to be released will cover the December 2025 quarter, which won’t tell the whole story given that it will also include data from October, one whole month before the new incentives come into effect.
It’s likely that a clearer picture will emerge when data from the March 2026 quarter is released.
