Scenario 1: A gap payment, manually sent

Patient makes a part payment (gap payment) to the Practice and the claim is manually sent to Medicare Australia Patient Claiming.

Reimbursement: A Medicare cheque with the doctor as the payee is sent to the patient. The patient then forwards the cheque to the practice. If the cheque is not presented to the practice within 21 days, the practice should contact the patient initially. Depending on what has transpired, the patient should then either present the cheque to the practice or contact Medicare Australia to have the original cheque cancelled and a new cheque redrawn. The cheque will then be sent to the patient to be forwarded on to the practitioner.

There may be an alternative logic path; however this would differ for individual circumstances.