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United States Major Medicare change kicks in today for millions of Aussies
People wanting to call Medicare will need to do it between certain times from today in a major shakeup of the system's phone lines. The government body used to answer calls around the clock from Monday to Sunday.
But it's now switched to a 15-hour window on weekdays and a 12-hour window on weekends. A Medicare spokesperson told Yahoo Finance winding back the telephone line hours would improve the system overall.
"This change will allow us to reallocate staff to priority Medicare work, such as processing claims and answering calls on other 24-hour lines," the spokesperson said.
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"Medicare customers can continue using our online self-service 24 hours a day.
"The new Medicare claims tracker has helped reduce phone enquiries, with customers checking the status of their claims online more than 1.8 million times in an average of 12 seconds per check."
The phone lines from today will only work from 7am to 10pm Monday to Friday, and 7am to 7pm on Saturday and Sunday.
Do you have a Centrelink story? Email stew.perrie@yahooinc.com
This was changed after an internal investigation found there were virtually no calls coming outside of those times.
"We regularly evaluate our business practices to make sure we’re delivering our services efficiently and effectively," the spokesperson explained to Yahoo Finance.
"A review of the 24-hour Medicare program and Medicare telephone claims lines found they have an exceptionally low call volume after hours and on weekends."
When the clock struck midnight to ring in the new year, a big change was ushered in for Centrelink users.
Prior to 2025, the maximum period you could get a medical certificate to make you exempt from your Centrelink obligations was 13 weeks.
However, that has now been increased to 24 months "for some job seekers with requirements".
"You can provide a medical certificate to patients unable to participate in work or other activities due to an illness or injury," Services Australia said.
"We use the medical certificate to assess if your patient can get an exemption from their payment requirements.
"How long the exemption period is will depend on our assessment."
If you're on a system like JobSeeker, you will have mutual obligations you need to abide by in order to receive the payment.
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This includes agreeing to a Job Plan, meeting the requirements of your plan, going to appointments with your employment services provider, looking for work and going to all job interviews, as well as several other requirements.
If you're not able to do this as a result of illness or injury, you'll need to get a medical certificate to prove you're unable to adhere to these obligations.
"While we assess your request for an exemption, you need to keep meeting your mutual obligation requirements," Services Australia added.
"This includes attending appointments with your employment services provider or doing agreed activities."
The extension of the medical certificate system will apply to those on JobSeeker, Youth Allowance for job seekers, the Parenting Payment Single when the youngest child turns six, and Special Benefits for Nominated Visa Holders.
The medical exemption will only apply if your sickness or illness prevents you from doing any suitable work or participating in other activities such as training for up to eight hours per day.
The new year also ushered in an update for Centrelink payments thanks to indexation.
Youth Allowance, Austudy, Youth Disability Support Pension and Carer Allowance are among the payments that increased from January 1.
Other payments, including the Age Pension and JobSeeker and Disability Support Pension, are set to increase with indexation in March and September.
You can find out more here.
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