Are you checking eligibility for Medicare, a Medicare benefit or a safety net?
Health and medicine costs
Medicare & PBS
Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme help with health and medicine costs. They are not Centrelink income-support payments and have their own eligibility and safety-net rules.
What this part of the system means
Medicare & PBS
Medicare helps with eligible health services and the PBS subsidises many prescription medicines. Core AU keeps three related layers separate: Medical Costs Finder for indicative provider fees and patient cost planning, MBS for medical-service items and Medicare benefits, and PBS for subsidised medicines, item codes and prescribing/dispensing conditions. They interact, but they answer different questions.
Decision prompts
Questions to answer first
These do not determine eligibility. They help identify which payment, scheme or authority to check next.
Is the cost a medical service, diagnostic service or prescription medicine?
Does a concession or safety-net threshold change the amount paid?
Is the medicine listed on the PBS and are any authority conditions relevant?
Primary sources
Where this section will be grounded
Compass links back to the administering agency or official scheme. Placeholder content is deliberately kept separate from a formal entitlement decision.
Official source
Services Australia — Medicare
Open source ↗Official source
Medical Costs Finder — procedures
Open source ↗Official source
Medical Costs Finder — guide to fees and costs
Open source ↗Official source
MBS Online — current downloads
Open source ↗Official source
MBS Online — item search
Open source ↗Official source
PBS — browse medicines and programs
Open source ↗Official source
PBS API PUBLIC v3
Open source ↗Other parts of the Australian support system