My Aged Care is the entry point for older Australians to access government-funded aged care. Health professionals play a key role in supporting patients to connect with My Aged Care and access services.
If you believe a patient needs aged care services, you can make a referral to My Aged Care to have their needs assessed.
This page highlights everything you need to know about referring a patient to My Aged Care. It covers:
When should I refer a patient to My Aged Care?
How do I refer a patient to My Aged Care?
How do I follow up a referral to My Aged Care?
How can I organise urgent services for a patient?
Can I find out if my patient is already receiving services?
Resources for health professionals
When should I refer a patient to My Aged Care?
You should refer a patient to My Aged Care if you think they:
- need aged care support to remain living independently at home
- require short-term care such as respite care
- are ready to move into an aged care home.
It’s important to know that aged care services aren’t a substitute for early intervention, rehabilitation or sub-acute programs provided under the health system.
If your patient needs health-related support, such as after a hospital stay or due to a sudden change in health status, it may be more appropriate to refer them to health specific services. This could be through post-acute care, state or privately-funded rehabilitation.
How do I refer a patient to My Aged Care?
There are several ways to refer a patient to My Aged Care. How you do this depends on whether you are a GP or other health professional. You will need your patient's consent before providing information on their behalf.
If you need to organise urgent services for a patient, you may need to refer them directly to a service provider. Learn more about urgent services.
GP e-Referral
If you’re a GP you can refer from within your patient’s electronic medical record, known as GP e-Referral. This is the quickest and easiest way for GPs to make a referral. GP e-Referral is only available if you use Best Practice, MedicalDirector, MedTech, Genie, Shexie or Zedmed practice management systems (PMS).
To make a referral through GP e-referral:
- Open the patient’s electronic medical record (EMR) inside your PMS and select ‘My Aged Care Referral’ from the HealthLink Referred Services tab
- The e-Referral form extracts the relevant patient details from the EMR, requiring very little manual data entry
- Review the information and add any additional details and attachments, such as GP letters and specialist advice
- Submit the referral, safely and securely, from your PMS to My Aged Care for assessment.
Once you submit the referral:
- you will receive a confirmation number once you submit the form. You and/or your patient can use this number if you need to follow up on the referral
- if all relevant information is included, it will be sent directly to an assessment organisation without the need for the My Aged Care to contact you or your patient to seek further information
- the referral will generate a My Aged Care client record for your patient. This will support the patient’s assessment
- you should advise your patient that they will be contacted by an aged care assessment organisation with 2-6 weeks.
For support using GP e-Referral:
Make a referral online form
The Make a referral form allows all health and aged care professionals to provide patient details and attach relevant documents – such as specialist advice – when referring a patient to My Aged Care. You should only use this form if it’s your patient’s first referral to My Aged Care.
Once you submit the referral:
- you will receive a confirmation number. Please keep a record of this number as you can use it to follow up on a referral
- if all relevant information is included, it will be sent directly to an assessment organisation without the need for My Aged Care to contact you or your patient to seek further information
- the referral will generate a My Aged Care client record for your patient. This will support the patient’s assessment.
Call My Aged Care
You can make a referral by calling the My Aged Care Contact Centre on 1800 200 422. The patient does not have to be present for you to make a phone referral, but you must have their consent.
If you provide the Contact Centre with all relevant information and the person you are referring has given you consent to make the referral on their behalf, a referral will be sent directly to an assessment organisation without the need for the My Aged Care Contact Centre to call your patient.
What happens after a referral
If all relevant information is included in your referral, we will send it to an aged care assessment organisation. However, if we need more information, we may contact you or the patient to confirm the information provided.
Once the referral information is confirmed, an assessor will call your patient to organise an aged care assessment, within two to six weeks. Your patient will also receive a My Aged Care Welcome Pack in the mail.
Please let your patient know they may be contacted by My Aged Care or an assessor.
Read about the assessment process.
When making a referral, remember
Whatever referral method you use, please:
- include all required information, including any relevant attachments in the correct format
- make sure information is legible and easy to understand
- include your primary contact details.
Missing, illegible or unclear information can cause delays in reviewing the application which can cause delays in a patient receiving an assessment.
Personal information and documents are retained securely within the My Aged Care system.
How can I organise urgent services for a patient?
There are specific circumstances where you may need to refer directly to a service provider. If your patient needs services urgently (which, if not met immediately, may place them at risk) you can refer them directly to a service provider.
The services where this is likely to happen are:
- nursing
- personal care
- meals
- transport
- grocery shopping.
These services can be for up to eight weeks. If longer-term care is needed, the service provider will refer the patient to My Aged Care for an assessment for ongoing care.
A provider’s acceptance of the referral for urgent care will be based on their capacity to take on new clients and the relative needs of other clients waiting for services. If you need a provider’s contact information, you can use the Find a provider tool to search their details or call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422.
How do I follow up a referral to My Aged Care?
You can follow up on your referrals by calling the My Aged Care Contact Centre on 1800 836 799. You will need:
- the confirmation number – if you made the referral online
- your details and the patient’s details
What can the Contact Centre tell you?
When you call to follow up a referral the Contact Centre can tell you:
- if the referral has been transferred to an assessment organisation
- the type of assessment
- the name and contact details of the assessment organisation
- if your patient has been referred for services, including the type of services if they have been accepted by a provider
- if your patient has existing aged care approvals in place
- if the referral you made has been closed including the reason for closure.
A health professional colleague can also call My Aged Care for this information. They must be from your organisation or practice and provide the same information about patient and the referral, including your name as the original referrer.
Can I find out if my patient is already receiving services?
If you would like to find out if your patient is already receiving aged care services – before making a referral – you can call the My Aged Care Contact Centre on 1800 200 422.
You must have your patient’s consent to receive this information. The Contact Centre will ask you to confirm your, and your patients, details before providing the information.
Resources for health professionals
Brochure
After you've registered with My Aged Care - information for your patients on what to expect after they have been referred to My Aged Care and how they can track their progress.
My Aged Care hospital portal
Authorised hospital staff can use this portal to search for a patient record in My Aged Care. They can view a summary of a patient’s aged care assessment information to help manage hospital discharge planning.
Hard copy resources
If you or a patient would like hard copies of the My Aged Care brochures, some are available to order, for free, through National Mail and Marketing.
GP E-referrals video
See how you can now refer your patients for assessment for Australian Government-subsidised aged care services directly from your practice management system using HealthLink e-Referral.