About Medicare and Diagnostic Imaging

Responsibility for managing Medicare-funded Diagnostic Imaging (DI) services and determining strategies for maintaining and improving the quality, accessibility and affordability of these services is undertaken cooperatively between DI representative groups and the Government as represented by the Department of Health and Ageing (the Department).

In this section:

Diagnostic Imaging (DI) is a generic term which covers ultrasound; computed tomography (CT), nuclear medicine, radiography (x-ray), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) and bone densitometry.

The Australian Government provides Medicare rebates for certain relevant DI services.

Medicare Australia administers the payment of Medicare rebates on behalf of the Australian Government.

The legislative basis for the DI services specified in the Diagnostic Imaging Services Table (the Table) is incorporated in the:
Health Insurance Act 1973,
Health Insurance Regulations 1975, and
Health Insurance (Diagnostic Imaging Services Table) Regulations 2007.
The Table of DI Services is set out in Catergory 5 of the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS).

Diagnostic Imaging Memoranda of Understanding

There are four agreements between the Australian Government and Diagnostic Imaging representative groups, known as Quality and Outlays Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs). These MoUs commenced on 1 July 2003 and expired 30 June 2008.

The Diagnostic Services Branch is responsible for providing policy advice and funding for specialist services including pathology and diagnostic imaging.

Help with accessing large documents

When accessing large documents (over 500 KB in size), it is recommended that the following procedure be used:

Click the link with the RIGHT mouse button
Choose "Save Target As.../Save Link As..." depending on your browser
Select an appropriate folder on a local drive to place the downloaded file

Attempting to open large documents within the browser window (by left-clicking) may inhibit your ability to continue browsing while the document is opening and/or lead to system problems.

Help with accessing PDF documents

To view PDF (Portable Document Format) documents, you will need to have a PDF reader installed on your computer. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is available free of charge from Adobe's website.