Question

I'm sending a pre-consent request for Assignment of Benefit and need to select a Basic Service Description, but I'm not sure which one to choose or how to find the correct Basic Service Description for a specific MBS item number.

 

Solution

Pre-consent is requested against a Basic Service Description rather than a specific MBS item number. In most cases, it is not necessary to look up which Basic Service Description covers a specific item number. You can simply choose the Basic Service Description that best matches the service you expect to provide.

If the final item billed falls outside the selected Basic Service Description category, HotDoc will automatically send a post-consent request to the patient with the exact item number (provided post-consent is enabled), so that consent is obtained for the correct service.

However, if you would like to verify which Basic Service Description applies to a specific MBS item number, you can check the Australian Government's Basic Service Description reference file.

Find the latest Basic Service Description reference file

1. Open the Australian Government's MBS Downloads page.
    
2. Select the most recent downloads page listed under Most Recent Files.
   
   
    
3. On the downloads page, scroll to Assignment of Medicare Benefits – Basic Service Description.
   
   
    
4. Download either the CSV or XML file.
   
   
5. Open the file and search for your MBS item number to find the corresponding Basic Service Description.