November 2026 News

News for November 2026 amendments to the Medicare Benefits Schedule

Page last updated: 01 October 2026

The 1 November 2026 MBS files are available on the November 2026 Downloads Page.

Summary of Changes for 1 November 2026

From 1 November 2026, there will be changes to the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) to implement a range of administrative and policy amendments, including the Australian Government’s response to recommendations from the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) and new and amended MBS services agreed to in the 2026-27 Budget. The changes are in line with the following legislation:

Thriving Kids Initiative

From 1 November 2026, as part of the Government’s Thriving Kids initiative a new MBS health assessment service called the Medicare Healthy Kids Check will be introduced for 3-year-old children using the time-tiered health assessment items (701-707 and 224-227). Introduction of a 3-year-old health check was recommended by the Thriving Kids Advisory Group, to improve early identification of developmental delay and/or neurodevelopmental differences in children, and facilitate connections with appropriate supports, or referrals for further assessment where needed. Further information is available at MBS Online - Medicare Healthy Kids Check.

Other changes to general medical services

From 1 November 2026, changes will be made relating to general medical services. These changes include:
    • Introducing four new phone attendance items 92033, 92034, 92063 and 92064 for chronic condition management (CCM) attendances by a general practitioner or prescribed medical practitioner to prepare or review a CCM plan for a patient;
    • Permanently listing six items (92478, 92479, 92480, 92481, 92482 and 92483) for inpatient telehealth psychiatry services which were first introduced as temporary items on 1 November 2024. Additionally, amendments will be made to the claiming restrictions for the six items to allow for two time-tiered services within a 7-day period where previously only one other time-tiered service was permitted in a 7-day period;
    • Enabling immunomodulating treatment item 14245 to be provided by a qualified health practitioner on behalf of the prescribing medical practitioner;
    • Enabling participating nurse practitioners to refer patients for bone mineral densitometry services described in items 12306 to 12322;
    • Expanding ambulatory blood pressure monitoring item 11607 to include child and adolescent blood pressure measurements and thresholds;
    • Amending item 18360 to provide treating clinicians access to a third pharmaceutical option (Xeomin) to treat patients with moderate and severe focal spasticity caused by a neurological disorder;
    • Enabling services provided under item 45518 to be performed outside of a hospital setting;
    • Administrative amendments to replace references to the term “residential aged care facility” with “residential care home” to align with terminology in the Aged Care Act 2024;
    • Administrative amendments to align Modified Monash (MM) location classifications with the most recent 2023 MM location categories;
    • Administrative amendments to reflect the new name of the committee that provides accreditation in relation to undertaking transcatheter aortic valve implantation and transcatheter mitral valve repair services, which is the Australian Transcatheter Valve Therapies Accreditation Committee;
    • Expanding the definitions of the terms "eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health worker" and "health professional" in relation to services to which item 73813 applies for detection of infection with chlamydia trachomatis, neisseria gonorrhoeae or trichomonas vaginalis;
    • Administrative amendment to correct a typographical error in item 10997;
    • Amending clause 1.2.11 to enable proton beam therapy item 15990 to be administered by persons other than medical practitioners and removing rhinology item 41764 to restrict its provision by only a medical practitioner or a speech pathologist on behalf of an otolaryngology head and neck surgeon;
    • Amending section 52 of the Health Insurance Regulation 2018, (which sets out prescribed particulars of a person rendering a service and a person claiming or receiving fees) to include reference to all items currently in Group T2 (Radiation Oncology) and Group T3 (Therapeutic Nuclear Medicine).

Changes relating to diagnostic imaging services

From 1 November 2026, changes will be made relating to diagnostic imaging services. This includes:
    • Enabling the maximum benefit payable for item 61438 for patients accessing this nuclear medicine imaging service;
    • Amending the frequency restriction for item 61564 for prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography studies for the restaging of recurrent prostate adenocarcinoma to allow the service to apply once in a 12-month period;
    • Administrative amendments to replace references to the term “residential aged care facility” with “residential care home” to align with terminology in the Aged Care Act 2024;
    • Administrative amendments to align Modified Monash (MM) location classifications with the most recent 2023 MM location categories.

Changes relating to pathology services

From 1 November 2026, changes will be made relating to pathology services. This includes:
    • Administrative amendments to replace references to the term “residential aged care facility” with “residential care home” to align with terminology in the Aged Care Act 2024;
    • Amendments to remove the requirement for specialist paediatricians to consult a clinical geneticist before requesting genetic testing for childhood syndromes under items 73358, 73359 and 73360;
    • Amending item 71099 to enable the use of the Crithidia method as a choice of testing for double-stranded DNA antibody assessment under this item;
    • Amending item 73433 to expand NTRK1-3 testing to adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic glioma, glioneuronal tumour or glioblastoma.

Relevant Legislation

Please note links will be added as they become available on the Federal Register of Legislation :