Physiotherapists & Rehabilitation

Do you need a referral?

No referral is required to book and pay privately for physiotherapy. A referral only becomes relevant if you want a Medicare rebate, which requires your GP to prepare a Chronic Condition Management Plan first — available where you have a chronic condition (lasting or expected to last 6 months or more) that a structured, multidisciplinary approach would help.

The Medicare allied health cap

A Chronic Condition Management Plan provides access to up to 5 Medicare-rebated individual allied health services per calendar year (10 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients) — and this cap is shared across all allied health providers you see, not 5 visits per provider. If you also see a podiatrist or exercise physiologist under the same plan, all those visits draw from the same shared total. The Medicare rebate for allied health visits is modest and most practices charge a gap on top of it.

Private health insurance

Extras cover through private health insurance is the more common way people fund ongoing physiotherapy, and is entirely separate from Medicare — you can claim through both a Chronic Condition Management Plan and extras cover for different parts of the same course of treatment, subject to your fund’s annual limits. Check your remaining extras limit before booking a longer course of sessions.

What to bring

Bring any imaging or specialist reports related to the injury, a list of medications, and a clear sense of what you’re hoping to achieve — return to a specific sport, manage daily pain, or recover function after surgery. Wear or bring clothing that allows the area to be examined and moved through its range.

Questions worth asking

• How many sessions do you expect this to take, roughly?
• What is the gap between your fee and the Medicare or health fund rebate?
• What exercises should I be doing between sessions?
• Should I be seeing anyone else alongside physiotherapy — a GP, podiatrist or specialist?
• How will we know when treatment is complete?