Eligibility for the Premium Support Scheme (PSS)

Doctors may be eligible if they have high indemnity insurance costs to cover their private practice.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for the PSS in a premium period, a doctor must either:

Special cases for public sector work

There are 2 special cases for doctors who practice in the public sector:

  1. If a doctor’s practice is mainly public billings or services in a premium period, they are eligible if they have all the following:
  2. If a doctor’s practice is only public billings or services in a premium period, they are eligible if they have both:
    • no income from private medical practice
    • run-off or retroactive cover for incidents connected to the doctor’s previous paid private medical practice.

Who is not eligible

Doctors are not eligible if either:

  • their private practice income is nil or less than $1,000 for a premium period
  • they have not repaid a subsidy overpayment that an insurer has requested they repay
  • they practice outside Australia and its territories for at least 6 months in a premium period. This includes leave (such as holiday or illness) but not any other absence.

If a doctor practices outside Australia in one of the circumstances listed in section 7 of the Medical Indemnity Rules 2020, the practice is taken to be in Australia.

If doctors only work with public patients

Doctors will not be eligible if they both:

  • only work with public patients
  • have full indemnity cover for their public practice from their employer.

This is because they do not bear any costs for medical indemnity insurance. Their employer pays these costs.

These doctors are eligible if they pay for the cost of retroactive or run-off cover for earlier private practice. This is special case 2.

PSS and other schemes

Doctors and indemnity insurers may also be eligible for help with claim costs and run-off cover. See the other medical and midwife professional indemnity schemes.

Leaving PSS

If a doctor becomes ineligible for the PSS, they must repay any subsidy amounts they are no longer entitled to. Their insurer will let them know the details.

Date last updated:

Help us improve health.gov.au

If you would like a response please use the enquiries form instead.