Bulk billing rates are recovering, but fewer Australians are seeing a GP, and immunisation coverage and numbers of remote GPs are still falling short of targets.
The findings form part of the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s over 400-page 2025-26 annual report, released last week.
GP bulk billing up, but access still short
Despite a $7.9 billion investment in the 2025-26 budget to expand GP bulk billing incentives to all patients from 1 November 2025, the share of patients with a Medicare-subsidised non-referred GP attendance fell from 83.8% to 83.6%, short of the department’s 2025-26 target of more than 85%.
The GP bulk billing rate, however, rose by 3.1 percentage points to 80.9%, above its 78.5% target.
By 30 June 2026, more than 3,800 general practices had registered with the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program (BBPIP).
The share of Australians accessing MBS services also fell from 88.0% to 87.8%, a slower decline than the 0.6 percentage point drop the year before.
The department partly attributed lower demand to patients seeking care elsewhere, including pharmacy-issued work absence certificates, and expanded pharmacy prescribing trials in some states.
Out-of-pocket costs and cost-of-living pressures also remained a barrier for some patients, the report said.
Overall, the MBS paid $35 billion in benefits in 2025-26, covering 74.1% of the total fees charged for services.
Related
Peptide-related death spurs call for telehealth inquiry
RACGP: longer GP consults, but Medicare isn’t keeping pace
The government wants to reward better GP care. But what happens when targets take priority?
GP workforce growing, but not evenly
The department said 20 of its 21 workforce targets were met across most of the seven Modified Monash (MM) categories, including GPs, nurses, midwives, and allied health,
The exception was GPs in very remote areas (MM7), where the headcount fell eight short of the 1327 target. Increasing MM7 GP numbers would “continue to be a focus area”, the report read.
DoHDA attributed the expansion of the AGPT program, new GP Training Incentive Payments for GP and rural generalist registrars, reforms to the Bonded Medical Program, and 160 new Commonwealth-supported medical places, which began this year.
The Workforce Incentive Program’s Doctor and Rural Advanced Skills streams also improved the attraction of rural and remote GPs, it said.
Metropolitan areas (MM1) recorded the greatest outperformance in anticipated GPs, reaching a total of 28,430, or 378 more than planned. Regional centres (MM2) followed closely with 5077 – 314 more than anticipated.
The number of GPs exceeded DoHDA’s corporate plan across all areas, except MM7.
Overall, remote (MM6) and very remote (MM7) communities accounted for 2.3% and 2.8% of the GP workforce, respectively, compared with the most metropolitan areas (MM1), which accounted for 60.6% of the total workforce.
The number of full-time equivalent (FTE) GPs per 100,000 people was rated “substantially achieved”.
Only metropolitan areas fell slightly short, at 111.4 against a target of 111.9 GPs per 100,000 people.
“The department will continue to strengthen the GP workforce pipeline, including Primary Care GPs in active training in MM1,” the report read.
Large rural towns (MM3) had the highest proportion of GPs per 100,000 people, at 128.8, closely followed by medium rural towns at 128.2.
There were 3,549 registrars (FTE) in active training across the AGPT, Rural Generalist Training Scheme and Remote Vocational Training Scheme, 238 (7%) more than anticipated.
Some 47% were based in metropolitan areas, exceeding the target by 6.3%.
In very remote areas, trainees exceeded the target by about 20%. Only remote communities (MM6) underperformed, with 106 registrars against an expected 106.9 – a shortfall of less than 1%.
The total number of GPs in training grew by at least 6% from 2024-25, with the largest intake of commencing registrars on record in 2026, the department said.
DoHDA’s GP figures used Medicare data from the 2024 calendar year, the latest available.
Urgent care clinics getting cheaper
By the end of June 2026, DoHDA had completed its network of 137 clinics and, according to the annual report, recorded more than 3.3 million presentations since the first clinics opened in June 2023.
In 2025-26, 462,584 presentations to 76 clinics were from patients who reported they would otherwise have gone to an ED or called an ambulance.
The department set this year as the baseline and said it expected the figure to rise in 2026-27, given that the full network would be operational.
According to a second interim report from an independent evaluation, the cost per presentation fell from $216 to $206, and UCCs reduced ED presentations by approximately 10%, although the results varied depending on methodology.
Immunisation slips
Childhood and adolescent immunisation coverage missed all three national targets in 2025-26, with the department citing a “complex combination of behavioural, social and access-related factors” following covid.
Coverage among children fully immunised at 5 years fell to 92.92% from 93.27%, slipping below the 95% target.
Coverage among First Nations children aged 12 to 15 months also rose only 0.1 percentage point, to 89.71%, from the previous year.
HPV coverage among 15-year-olds fell for the second year running to 79.55% among females and 76.52% among males – below the 90% target.
PBS copayment changes
From 1 January, the maximum PBS co-payment for general patients fell from $31.60 to $25, while the concessional rate would remain frozen at $7.70 until 1 January 2030.
All new medicines recommended by the PBAC in 2025-26 were listed within six months of agreement with sponsor companies in 2024-26, the department said, a result consistent with previous years and meeting its 85% target.
Read the full report here.
The post Bulk billing rises as MBS access slips again appeared first on Medical Republic.
Add Comment