Medicare representative

A person can act on your behalf for Medicare purposes when any of the following applies:

• they’re your appointed Power of Attorney (POA)
• a court or tribunal has appointed them as your guardian and administrator
• we’ve accepted them as your authorised representative
• they’re your authorised third party.

Power of Attorney or guardian and administration orders

Use a Power of Attorney (POA) or guardianship and administration order to appoint someone to act on your behalf. The POA or order must show your representative can act on your behalf for financial matters.

They’ll need to give us the following:

• an original or a certified copy of the POA document or guardianship and administration order
• your Medicare number
• a copy of their identity document.

An identity document can be any of the following:

• Australian birth certificate
• Australian citizenship certificate
• Australian driver’s licence
• valid Australian passport
• foreign passport with a current Australian visa
• ImmiCard.

They can visit one of our service centres, mail or email documents to Medicare Enrolment Services.

Authorised representative

You can nominate yourself to be an authorised representative. You can only do this if the person you want to represent can’t manage their own affairs. It must be due to a medical condition or disability.

To be someone’s authorised representative, you must be all of the following:

• over 18 years old
• their close friend or relative
• not their paid carer from any organisation, institution or community health care service.

To apply, complete an Authorisation to act on an incapacitated person’s behalf for Medicare purposes form. We also need copies of all of the following:

• your proof of ID
• a statutory declaration which states how you know them and your care arrangements for them
• evidence you act on their behalf for a similar arrangement
• evidence that the person is unable to manage their own affairs.

There are examples of what documents you can give us on the form.

You can mail or email your form and supporting documents to Medicare Enrolment Services.

Authorised third party

You can give us permission to release your compensation information to a third party. They can also complete and sign relevant documentation on your behalf. Use the Medicare Compensation Recovery Third party authority form.

An authorised third party also includes legal representatives.

A legal representative is a person who has been legally appointed by law to act on the injured person’s behalf.

You can appoint a legal representative with one of the following:

• a Last Will and Testament confirming the executor or executrix of the estate
• Letters of Administration or Probate where the injured person dies intestate, without a Last Will and Testament in place
• Public Trustee documentation
• a Court order.

Removing a Medicare representative

You can call us to remove a Medicare representative.