If you’re eligible and hold a valid referral, Medicare rebates can reduce the cost of seeing a psychiatrist online. Here’s how it works.
Book your appointmentSee your GP and ask for a referral to a psychiatrist. GP referrals to a specialist are typically valid for 12 months.
Submit a request with Updoc and provide your referral during intake. You’ll receive an email detailing the forms to complete before booking.
For psychiatry consultations, Updoc does not lodge Medicare claims on your behalf. You pay the full fee, we email your paid invoice, and you claim the rebate yourself through your Medicare online account in myGov or the Express Plus Medicare app.
Figures from MBS Online, schedule fees updated 1 July 2026, for out-of-hospital services. Updoc consultations are held by video, so the video item numbers above are the ones that appear on your invoice, with the in-rooms equivalents shown for reference. Medicare items and amounts are set by the Australian Government and change from time to time. The item billed depends on your consultation and is determined by your psychiatrist, so your rebate may differ. Higher rebates can apply once you reach the Medicare Safety Net.
A video consultation of more than 45 minutes where the psychiatrist completes a comprehensive diagnostic assessment and writes a management plan, sent to your referring GP within two weeks, so that your GP can manage your ongoing care. Claimable once in a 12 month period, with one plan review available in the following 12 months. Schedule fee $549.90, rebate $467.45.
A video consultation of more than 45 minutes as a new patient, or where you have not seen that psychiatrist in the past 24 months. It does not require your ongoing care to be handed back to your GP, so it suits people who expect to keep seeing the psychiatrist. Schedule fee $316.30, rebate $268.90.
Which item applies is a clinical and billing decision made by your psychiatrist, not something you or Updoc can select. Both require a valid referral from a GP or a participating nurse practitioner, and both are claimed by you rather than by Updoc.
Item 92435 exists on the basis that your GP takes over your ongoing care once the psychiatrist has provided the management plan. For ADHD, that means your referring GP needs to be both willing and authorised to manage the condition, and to prescribe the medication if medication forms part of your plan.
ADHD medications are controlled medicines. Prescribing them, and continuing them under a specialist's plan, requires specific authorisation from the health department in your state or territory, and the rules differ across Australia. Not every GP holds that authorisation.
The arrangements differ by state and territory. In New South Wales, for example, a General Authority available from 1 September 2025 lets GPs who complete an endorsed course and apply to the NSW Ministry of Health prescribe as continuation prescribers. That authority covers continuing an ADHD medicine rather than starting one, so if beginning a new medicine is part of your plan, your GP may still need a separate arrangement with the psychiatrist. If you live outside NSW, check the position with your own state or territory health department.
Ask your GP before your appointment whether they are able to manage ADHD and prescribe under a psychiatrist's plan in your state or territory. If they are not, you may need ongoing psychiatrist care instead, which changes which Medicare items apply and what you pay. Updoc cannot confirm what your GP is authorised to do, and a psychiatrist assessment does not guarantee a diagnosis, a prescription or a particular treatment.
Medicare eligibility is assessed by Services Australia, not Updoc. If you’re unsure about your circumstances, your GP or Services Australia can confirm what you can claim.
You can consult a psychiatrist without one, but Medicare rebates only apply to eligible consultations with a valid referral. Without one, the full consultation fee applies.
It depends on the Medicare item billed and your circumstances, for example whether you’ve reached the Medicare Safety Net. You’ll always see the full consultation fee before you book.
No. Mental Health Treatment Plans relate to psychology sessions. For psychiatry, a standard referral from your GP is what makes eligible consultations rebateable.
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