What we treat
16 July 2024
Published by Someone Health · Updated 01 June 2026
If you have a mental health treatment plan (MHTP), which you can obtain with your GP, then Medicare will cover some, or all, of the cost of your appointment with a psychologist or clinical psychologist, for up to 10 appointments per calendar year.
The amount charged for your session or rebated by Medicare will largely depend on:
The amount of time in the session;
If your psychologist has agreed to bulk bill you, and;
The type of psychologist (general or clinical) you have booked to see.
If your psychologist has agreed to bulk bill you then you will have no out-of-pocket expense. Medicare will completely cover your appointment cost.
Someone.health has a number of psychologists who accept up to 10 bulk billed appointments; see the website for further details. Visit the Someone.health schedule of fees page for more information.
A clinical psychologist will participate in 2 more years of supervised clinical practice on top of their 6 years of training, hence the difference in the amount rebated by Medicare.
Your referral for a MHTP under the Australian Government’s Better Access Initiative allows you access to 6 appointments for your first referral and 4 appointments for your second referral, up to a total of 10 appointments per calendar year. Your referral only ends once you have had the 6 (first referral) or 4 (second referral) appointments.
Case study: Sandra’s GP refers her for 6 appointments with a psychologist in December 2023. Sandra sees the psychologist for 2 appointments in December 2023. She can then continue to use this referral for 4 more sessions in 2024. When Sandra returns to her GP, she learns that she can now get a new referral for 6 more sessions in 2024, to a total of 10 sessions in 2024.
Medicare rebates are identical for face-to-face and telehealth therapy. In part, this is because research to date has shown that face-to-face and telehealth psychological therapy are equally effective. [1], [2], [3]
Furthermore, the ease of access to a telehealth appointment can be helpful to people who work a busy schedule, live in a non-metropolitan area, or experience financial hardship. This is partly because an appointment can be booked at times that suit your schedule, with no need to drive to and from a physical location. Online appointments provide Someone.health with greater reach in geographically isolated locations.
If you prefer, you can access face-to-face Medicare-supported appointments. Usually, these appointments will have an out-of-pocket expense (usually $150-320, depending on the appointment type) as it costs more to run a face-to-face clinic. You can read more about the Australian Psychological Society’s national schedule of recommended fees here.
It is essential that you maintain your own record of the number of sessions you have already used. Do not rely solely on statements from Medicare, as they may not be provided regularly.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you do not exceed the available funds as Medicare does not provide more than 10 sessions per calendar year. If you would like to, or accidentally, go over the 10 Medicare sessions available to you, then you can pay privately for additional sessions.
1.
Greenwood, H., Krzyzaniak, N., Peiris, R., Clark, J., Scott, A. M., Cardona, M., … & Glasziou, P. (2022). Telehealth versus face-to-face psychotherapy for less common mental health conditions: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. JMIR Mental Health, 9(3), e31780
2.
Krzyzaniak, N., Greenwood, H., Scott, A. M., Peiris, R., Cardona, M., Clark, J., & Glasziou, P. (2021). The effectiveness of telehealth versus face-to face interventions for anxiety disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 1357633X211053738.
3.
Luo, C., Sanger, N., Singhal, N., Pattrick, K., Shams, I., Shahid, H., … & Samaan, Z. (2020). A comparison of electronically-delivered and face to face cognitive behavioural therapies in depressive disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. EClinicalMedicine, 24.
