The Medicare Consent Retention Rule: Keeping Records for 2 Years

The Legal Obligation to Retain Consent Records

Getting a patient to sign a bulk-billing consent form is only the first step in the compliance process. Under Section 65C of the Health Insurance Regulations 2018, medical practices must retain all Assignment of Benefit consent records for a minimum of two years from the date the service was rendered. This rule applies whether you use paper forms, scanned PDFs, or electronic signatures.

What Happens During a Medicare Audit?

Services Australia regularly conducts random and targeted audits of GP practices to identify billing anomalies or double-claiming. If you are audited, you will be asked to produce the signed consent forms for a specific list of claims. If you cannot locate a form, or if the form is missing key details like the MBS items or signature date, the claim is declared invalid. Medicare will recoup the funds, and the practice may face administrative penalties.

Legacy Storage vs. Secure Digital Vaults

Many practices store scanned consent slips in their local clinical systems or keep boxes of physical paper forms in storage rooms. This makes retrieving records during an audit extremely time-consuming and risks data loss due to filing errors. GPConsent solves this with a secure cloud vault. Every consent is stored with a real-time countdown timer showing how much of the mandatory 2-year retention window remains, ensuring that your records are always search-ready and secure.