FREE DOWNLOAD · UPDATED FOR 1 NOV 2025
Mental Health Treatment Plans don't expire.
The Better Access scheme changed in November 2025 and most GPs never got the memo. Get the free framework and stop doing paperwork you never needed to do.
Instant download. Subscribe to our newsletter. No spam, just practical GP updates. Unsubscribe anytime.
The 5-step referral cycle
Every current item number
What changed on 1 Nov 2025
WHAT IT COSTS TO NOT KNOW THIS
Avoid unnecessary and repetitive paperwork.
The Better Access scheme is one of the most used parts of the MBS and one of the least well understood. The gaps get filled by whoever speaks first, and the work lands on the GP.
The Rewrite
Redoing plans every 12 months for patients whose plans never expired.
The Rejection
Billing 2712 or 2713 — deleted from the MBS on 1 November 2025.
The Loop
A patient stuck between a GP and a psychologist, relaying a Medicare rule neither explained.
The Doubt
Quietly wondering whether you've been getting it wrong, and having nobody to ask.
WHAT'S IN THE FRAMEWORK
One page. The entire Better Access pathway
Written by a practising Australian GP, referenced to the MBS explanatory notes, and designed to sit next to your monitor rather than in your downloads folder.
The five-step cycle
Prepare once, refer six, report back, review, refer the balance. The whole loop, with the limits that apply at each stage.
Every current item number
2700, 2701, 2715, 2717 and the video equivalents — plus which time-tiered item to use for reviews now that 2712 is gone.
The rules that catch people out
Review intervals, session caps, carry-over sessions, the MyMedicare requirement, and the three myths worth correcting out loud.
WHY WE MADE THIS
We've sat in that appointment too.
A patient books in because someone told them their plan expired. Twenty minutes later you've generated no clinical value and the problem still isn't solved. That consultation is the reason this page exists.
Written and reviewed by practising Australian GPs, not a content agency
Referenced directly to MBS explanatory notes AN.0.56, AN.0.78 and MN.6.3
Updated for the 1 November 2025 Better Access redesign
Part of a library of MBS and PBS updates read by GPs and registrars across Australia
"A Mental Health Treatment Plan does not expire"
MBS EXPLANATORY NOTE MN.6.3
Eight words, sitting in plain sight on MBS Online. The framework unpacks what they mean for your Monday morning.
THE PLAN-ONCE PATHWAY
Three steps to never redoing a plan again.
1
Download it
Enter your email. Instantly download the PDF.
2
Pin it up
Print the page or keep it open in a tab. It's built to be scanned mid-consult, not studied.
3
Close the loop
Next time a patient says their plan expired, you answer it in one sentence and get the consultation back.
THE SHORT VERSION, IF YOU'D RATHER READ IT HERE
Does a Mental Health Treatment Plan expire?
A GP Mental Health Treatment Plan is an assessment document, not a referral. You prepare it once, and the MBS states plainly that it does not expire. A new plan should not be created unless exceptional circumstances exist — a significant change in the patient's mental health, or an inability to obtain a copy of the existing plan. A new calendar year is not an exceptional circumstance.
What resets on 1 January is the session count: up to 10 individual and 10 group therapy services per calendar year. The initial referral covers a maximum of 6 individual services. The psychologist then reports back, you review the plan, and you issue a further referral for the balance.
On 1 November 2025, the Better Access redesign removed twelve MBS items, including the plan review item 2712 and the mental health consultation item 2713. Nothing replaced them. Reviews, re-referrals and ongoing mental health care are now billed on time-tiered general attendance items — 23, 36, 44, or Level E item 123 — so the rebate follows the time you actually spend, and the tripled bulk billing incentive can apply where the patient is eligible.
The same change linked Better Access to continuity of care. Plan preparation, plan reviews and referrals must now be provided by a GP or prescribed medical practitioner at the patient's MyMedicare registered practice, or by their usual medical practitioner. Telehealth plan items also lost their exemption from the established clinical relationship rule.
None of this is difficult once it's on one page. It is only difficult because it changed quietly, and because the people around you are working from the version they learned several years ago. That is what the framework fixes.
FREE · NO COST · ONE PAGE
Get the Mental Health Treatment Plan Framework
The full pathway, the current item numbers, and what changed on 1 November 2025 — on a single page you can print.
You'll also subscribe to our free newsletter for MBS and PBS updates. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.