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3. General information
3.1 Patients and claimants
Medicare Easyclaim makes references to both patients and claimants. The patient is the
recipient of a medical service. The claimant is the person receiving the Medicare rebate
relating to the service provided.
The patient and claimant may be the same person or different people e.g. a child receiving
the service is the patient and the child’s parent or guardian may be the claimant. Multiple
patients can be listed on a single Medicare card, but each patient claim must be processed
individually.
3.2 Bank Accounts
Medicare rebates can only be paid into a cheque or savings account, not into a credit card
account. However credit cards can be used to pay for the service provided in accordance
with your usual business processes.
3.3 Optional Fields
In certain circumstances, you may be asked to enter additional information to allow
Medicare Australia to assess the service and process the claim. Omission of this
information may result in either a rejection or Medicare Australia contacting you for
clarification.
Examples of optional fields include, Item Override Code, Equipment Identification Number,
Self Deemed Code, Account Reference Number and Location Specific Practice Number
(LSPN).
Please refer to your Medicare Easyclaim Reference Guide to view definitions of the above
optional fields. The Medicare Easyclaim Reference Guide is included in the Medicare
Easyclaim Starter Kit and is available directly from Medicare Australia.
3.4 Medicare Easyclaim Reference Guide
For more information about Medicare Easyclaim, including services that are not supported
by Medicare Easyclaim, please refer to the Medicare Easyclaim Reference Guide, or visit
www.medicareaustralia.gov.au and click on the link for Health Professionals.
3.5 Express claims
The Medicare Easyclaim application has an Express Claim option for Paid Patient claims and
Bulk Bill claims.
Depending on the type of medical practitioner processing the claim, the following steps
may not be presented:
• Payee Provider
• Item Override Code
• Location Specific Practice Number
• Equipment ID
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