Fee schedule
Medicare physiotherapy item 10960, 2026-27
Medicare item 10960 pays a physiotherapist $74.55 (rebate $63.40) for a service of at least 20 minutes under a chronic condition management plan, capped at 5 services a year shared across every discipline. From 1 July 2025 the old GP Management Plan and Team Care Arrangements were replaced by that plan, with transition access to old plans until June 2027.
Last checked 25 Sep 2026 against the sources listed at the end of this page.
- Payer
- Medicare
- Effective from
- 1 Jul 2026
- Official schedule
- Source document
What changed this year
- Item 10960's schedule fee updated to $74.55 effective 1 July 2026 on MBS Online, the same fee every other individual chronic condition management item carries, whatever the discipline.
- On 1 July 2025 the GP Management Plan and Team Care Arrangements pairing that used to unlock 10960 was replaced by a single GP chronic condition management plan. Patients with a pre-1 July 2025 GP Management Plan and Team Care Arrangement can keep using it until 30 June 2027.
- Referral rules changed alongside the plan rename: for referrals written from 1 July 2025, the referral is valid for the period stated, or 18 months from the first service if no period is given, instead of needing a fixed number of services stated on it.
- 10960 is not physiotherapy's only Medicare item. Physiotherapists can also attend the multidisciplinary case conference items (10955, 10957, 10959) alongside any other eligible allied health practitioner, and can bill separately under DVA, workers compensation, NDIS and private health schemes covered elsewhere in this batch.
All 4 physiotherapy items
| Item | Description | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| 10960 | Physiotherapy service, individual, by an eligible physiotherapist, at least 20 minutes, under a GP chronic condition management plan (rebate 85% = $63.40) | $74.55 |
| 10955 | Multidisciplinary case conference, community or RACF, 15 to less than 20 minutes, any eligible allied health practitioner including physiotherapists (rebate 85% = $49.75) | $58.50 |
| 10957 | Multidisciplinary case conference, community or RACF, 20 to less than 40 minutes (rebate 85% = $85.30) | $100.30 |
| 10959 | Multidisciplinary case conference, community or RACF, 40 minutes or more (rebate 85% = $141.85) | $166.85 |
What physio item number 10960 actually covers
Searches for "physio item number 10960" are usually people checking one thing: what Medicare pays for a chronic disease physiotherapy visit and what has to be in place first. The answer is $74.55, with an 85 per cent rebate of $63.40, for an individual service of at least 20 minutes, recommended in a patient's GP chronic condition management plan. There is no separate initial consultation rate and no fee tier for longer sessions, a simpler structure than physiotherapy's DVA schedule, which prices rooms, home, hospital and telehealth consultations differently.
The catch most patients and some practices miss is the shared cap. Medicare allows up to 5 of these individual chronic condition management services a calendar year, and that cap is pooled across every discipline the patient sees under the same plan, not 5 physiotherapy visits on top of 5 podiatry visits.
The 2025 plan rename that changed how referrals work
Before 1 July 2025, access to item 10960 ran through two documents together: a GP Management Plan and Team Care Arrangements. From that date, Medicare replaced both with a single GP chronic condition management plan, a genuine simplification rather than a cosmetic change. Patients who already had a GP Management Plan and Team Care Arrangement in place before 1 July 2025 can keep using it until 30 June 2027, so practices will see both plan types referenced in referrals for a while yet.
The referral rules changed at the same time. A referral written on or after 1 July 2025 is valid for the period stated on it, or 18 months from the first service if no period is given, and no longer needs to state a fixed number of services. A referral written before that date still must state the number of services and stays valid until they are used.
Where the 5 service cap trips practices up
Because the cap is not physiotherapy-specific, the most common billing error is a physiotherapy clinic assuming a new patient has a full 5 services available under 10960 without checking whether they have already used some of that cap with a different profession earlier in the year. A GP's chronic condition management plan can recommend several disciplines at once, for example physiotherapy and dietetics, and the patient decides how to split their 5 services across them.
The second common error is skipping the report-back requirement. It is not needed for every visit, only the first and last service under a referral (or the only service, if there is just one), but it is a condition of the item, not an optional courtesy, and DVA-style thinking that treats it as separate paperwork tends to miss it inside the Medicare workflow.
Claiming notes
- Eligibility: the patient needs a chronic condition and complex care needs managed by a GP or prescribed medical practitioner, not a specialist or consultant physician, under a GP chronic condition management plan (or a valid transitional GP Management Plan and Team Care Arrangement, or a multidisciplinary care plan for a residential aged care resident).
- The service must be recommended in the plan, provided individually, and last at least 20 minutes. There is no higher fee for a longer session and no separate initial-consultation item, unlike physiotherapy's DVA or workers compensation schedules.
- The 5 service cap is shared across every discipline the patient uses that calendar year, not a physiotherapy-only allowance. A patient who has already used 2 psychology and 2 podiatry CDM services this year has 1 physiotherapy service left, not a fresh 5.
- Report-back is required: the physiotherapist must send a written report to the referring practitioner for the only service under a referral, or the first and last service under a longer referral, or whenever there is a material change worth reporting.
- A chronic condition management plan referral names the profession, physiotherapy, not a specific physiotherapist. The patient can take it to any physiotherapist of their choosing.
- Patients cannot claim an MBS benefit and a private health insurance extras benefit for the same 10960 service, and it is the patient's choice which of their allowed services use the MBS benefit if their plan lists more than 5.
- Practices can check a patient's remaining chronic condition management services for the year through the MBS Items Online Checker or the patient's care plan history in HPOS or Medicare Online Account, rather than relying on the patient's memory of how many sessions they have used.
Load these fees into your practice software
- Set up 10960 as a single Medicare billable item in Cliniko, since there is only one fee and one rule set, unlike physiotherapy's DVA schedule, which has more than 30 separate F-codes.
- Since there is only one item to load, you can add 10960 directly under Settings, then Billable items, rather than building a CSV import. It is a GST-free health service, so leave Taxable blank.
- Add the three case conference items (10955, 10957, 10959) as shared items usable by any practitioner in the clinic, not physiotherapy-specific, since any eligible allied health professional can bill them.
- Use a Cliniko custom field or tag on the patient file to record how many of their shared 5 chronic condition management services have been used across all disciplines this calendar year, since Cliniko does not track that MBS-wide cap automatically.
- 10960 bulk bills through Cliniko's Tyro Health (formerly Medipass) connection, the standard Medicare claiming route in Cliniko and the workflow its help centre uses to explain how DVA claiming works in the same platform.
- Attach a task or reminder to the patient's file at the first and last session under a referral, since the report-back requirement is tied to those specific services, not every visit.
Sources
- Effective 1 July 2026, MBS item 10960 (physiotherapy, individual chronic condition management service) has a schedule fee of $74.55 with an 85 per cent benefit of $63.40, for a service of at least 20 minutes under a GP chronic condition management plan, capped at 5 services a calendar year shared across the item group. Department of Health and Aged Care, MBS Online, checked 25 Sep 2026.
- On 1 July 2025, GP management plans and team care arrangements were replaced by GP chronic condition management plan items, with transition arrangements for existing patients until 30 June 2027, and new referral validity rules for referrals written from 1 July 2025. Department of Health and Aged Care, MBS Online, checked 25 Sep 2026.
- The treating allied health professional must give a written report to the referring practitioner for the only service under a referral, the first and last service under a longer referral, or when there is a material change to report, under the requirements set out for items 10950 to 10970. Department of Health and Aged Care, MBS Online, checked 25 Sep 2026.
- Case conference items 10955 ($58.50), 10957 ($100.30) and 10959 ($166.85) apply to any eligible allied health practitioner including physiotherapists attending a community or residential aged care case conference. Department of Health and Aged Care, MBS Online, checked 25 Sep 2026.
- Cliniko's data import tool can create billable items from a CSV with the fields Item code, Name, Price (ex. tax), Taxable and Item type. Cliniko, checked 25 Sep 2026.
- Cliniko's help centre confirms Medicare bulk bills are processed through the Tyro Health (formerly Medipass) integration, and uses that as the comparison point for how DVA claiming works in Cliniko. Cliniko, checked 25 Sep 2026.