The Medicare Integrity Taskforce responded to the findings and recommendations of the Independent Review of Medicare Integrity and Compliance (Philip Review).
Key reforms delivered by the taskforce include:
- changing legislation in line with Philip Review recommendations
- increasing fraud reduction measures to strengthen Medicare integrity
- introducing some system checks that help stop payment of certain claims when they are incorrect
- developing tailored education and information resources to help Medicare users to understand the rules
- building new data models to find fraud and non-compliance faster
- improving how we work with Services Australia to protect the integrity of Medicare.
We also improved the Report suspected fraud online form, which you can use if you have anything to report. This can be about suspected fraud involving:
- health providers
- activities funded by our department such as services, grants and other payment
- our staff.
November 2025
- The Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill 2025 was introduced into the House in October 2025 and passed Parliament in November 2025.
- The Bill continues the Department’s ongoing response to the Philip Review and includes changes which allow for improved handling and sharing of information by government agencies and regulators.
- These changes assist in reducing non-compliance and fraud to better protect the integrity of health payment programs such as Medicare.
July to September 2025
- The Medicare Integrity Bill was introduced to the Senate in July 2025 and passed Parliament in September 2025.
- The Bill is a response to the Philip Review to further protect the integrity of Medicare. It helps to make sure strong systems are in place to prevent, identify, and respond to non-compliance and fraud.
- Included in this Bill is a change to the timeframe for submitting bulk billed claims, which was part of the 2024-25 Strengthening Medicare Budget measure.
- From 5 September 2025, the timeframe to submit bulk bill claims for Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and Child Dental Benefits Schedule (CDBS) services will reduce to 1 year. More information about this change can be found in these fact sheets.
March 2025
- We provided advice to our compliance colleagues as they developed the Health Provider Compliance Strategy 2025–30. The strategy goes hand in hand with taskforce’s work to encourage and promote a strong integrity culture.
November 2024
- We published the new Understanding Medicare: Provider Handbook on 25 November 2024. This handbook is a plain English guide that details the fundamental elements and principles of Medicare. It provides direction for healthcare professionals and others using the Medicare system.
September 2024
- In the 2024–25 Strengthening Medicare Budget, the Australian Government authorised the taskforce to work on Medicare claiming controls. The controls introduced claiming restrictions for specific items to ensure they can't be incorrectly claimed.
- We introduced Part 1 of this control on 1 September 2024 (Part 2 was introduced on 1 June 2025 -see above).
July 2024
We introduced a fraud-reduction measure on 1 July 2024. This means we made changes to the timeframe certain claims can be made under the:
- Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS)
- Child Dental Benefits Schedule (CDBS).
September and November 2023
Legislative changes to the Health Insurance Act 1973 took effect in September 2023 and November 2023. The changes have strengthened Medicare’s compliance functions, including to:
- improve operation of the Professional Services Review (PSR) Agency, an important regulator for the Medicare program
- create associate director positions to support the PSR’s workload
- improve our department’s audit process.
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Date last updated: