If you have a Medicare referral, after you pay the fee for an appointment, Medicare will pay a partial rebate to you. The difference between the fee we charge and the Medicare rebate is called the out of pocket fee.
Medicare tracks the out of pocket fees that you pay throughout the year, for all Medicare funded health services. If the total out of pocket fees that you have paid exceed a certain threshold for the year, Medicare will increase your future rebates to equal 80% of the total fee. This is known as the Extended Medicare Safety Net.
The threshold is lower if you have a concession health care card.
The below table shows an example of how the Safety Net works:
| Total Out of Pocket Expenses This Year | Our Fee | Rebate | Out of Pocket Fee |
| < $2249.80 | $200 | $88.25 | $111.75 |
| > $2249.80 (or >$717.90 if you are a concession card holder) | $200 | $160 | $40 |
If you register your family with Medicare, they will count the out of pocket fees that all members of your family have paid, meaning you will reach the threshold sooner.
For more information, please see the Medicare website. Please note, there are two programs, the ‘Original’ and ‘Extended’ Medicare Safety Nets – this page describes the Extended Net as it is more likely to be relevant to our clients than the Original Net.