Group Therapy and Medicare

As group therapy remains relatively uncommon in Australia, both clients and GPs occasionally have questions about referral requirements and entitlements. This page describes how group therapy under medicare is funded and the number of sessions you are entitled to. All the information provided on this page has links to where it was obtained from.

Patients can receive 10 sessions of individual therapy and 10 sessions of group therapy per calendar year under a Mental Health Treatment Plan. Attending individual therapy sessions does not reduce your group therapy entitlement, and vice versa. The current rebate for a 90-minute group therapy session with a clinical psychologist is 50.25. This means that if you have a valid referral, once you have paid for and attended a group therapy session at Northcote Psychology, you will receive $50.25 back into the bank account you have nominated on the medicare portal.

Unlike individual therapy where the maximum number of sessions that can be referred to is 6, a group therapy referral can be for 10 sessions. Getting a referral for 10 sessions is important as most of our group programs are weekly. If your referral is only for six sessions you will need to go back to your GP after six weeks.

As Northcote Psychology often offers group therapy in combination with individual therapy, the easiest course of action is to get a referral for 6 sessions of individual therapy and 10 sessions of group therapy at the same time. The GPHMSC have confirmed that both group therapy and individual therapy can be referred to at the same time.

I have done my best to ensure this information is accurate, but Medicare funding requirements can change. If you have any other questions or think this information isn’t quite right, please get in touch.