How do I access my My Health Record?

My Health Record is accessed through the Australian Government's myGov platform. You will need a myGov account (free to create at my.gov.au), and your My Health Record linked to it. Most Australians already have a My Health Record created on their behalf — Australia moved to an opt-out system in 2018, meaning records were created automatically unless you specifically declined. Once linked, you can view documents including GP clinical notes (uploaded by your practice), pathology reports, radiology reports, medications dispensed, and immunisation history. The My Health Record app is also available on iOS and Android and allows access without logging into the full myGov portal.

Can I opt out of having my pathology results uploaded to My Health Record?

Yes. Under the opt-out model, you can choose to have your pathology or radiology reports not uploaded to My Health Record. You can also restrict access to individual documents once they are uploaded — for example, preventing certain healthcare providers from viewing specific reports. If you want to discuss your privacy settings, your GP can help, or you can contact the My Health Record Help line via the Australian Digital Health Agency. Opting out of the record entirely is also still possible, though it means your treating team cannot use the record to coordinate your care during hospital admissions or emergencies.

From 1 July: all pathology and radiology reports go to My Health Record

What just happened

Medical Republic reported on 26 June 2026 that a cluster of significant changes to the Australian health system takes effect on 1 July — four days away. The change with the most direct impact on patients is one that has been building in policy for years but arrives in full force this week: pathologists and radiologists will be required, by default, to upload all reports to My Health Record.

My Health Record is the Australian government’s centralised health record platform, created under the opt-out model that was rolled out nationally in 2018. The intention from the start was that it would become a shared record allowing every treating clinician to see pathology results, imaging reports, medication dispensing history, and GP clinical notes — without any of the fragmentation that currently defines Australian healthcare, where your GP knows one thing, your specialist knows another, and nobody necessarily knows what the ED saw last year.

The problem has been that the “sharing” part never really happened at scale. In practice, most pathologists and radiologists did not upload reports to My Health Record. The reasons were a mix of technical friction, liability concern, and simple inertia. The opt-in model for uploads created a patchwork where some results appeared in the record and most did not — which made it unreliable enough that clinicians stopped checking it habitually. From 1 July, upload is mandatory by default. This is the change the record needed to become actually useful.

The both-and

The requirement that pathologists and radiologists upload reports by default shifts the current equilibrium significantly. A patient who has a blood test panel for thyroid function, cholesterol, iron studies, and a glucose will now have those results appear in their My Health Record, visible to their GP immediately and to them after five days. A mammogram report, a chest X-ray, an MRI of a knee — these will now flow into the record rather than sitting in a silo at the imaging centre.

For GP care, this changes the dynamic around result chasing. Currently, a GP who refers a patient to an external pathology or radiology provider may not receive results if the patient does not attend a follow-up appointment, or if the report goes to the wrong provider address. The shared record creates a backstop: the result is visible regardless of whether the paper pathway completed correctly.

My Health Record was always designed to serve this coordination function. It has never reliably done so because upload was voluntary. The mandatory requirement is what the system needed to reach baseline utility.

The five-day delay on patient access: sensible or patronising?

The 1 July arrangements include a specific rule that patients must wait five days before seeing anatomical pathology reports and genetic testing results. GP and specialist access is immediate — the delay applies only to direct patient viewing.

The policy rationale is clinical: a complex pathology result — a biopsy result, a molecular test, a genetic panel — received without clinical context can cause unnecessary harm. A woman who reads a pathology report flagging an abnormal cervical smear before her GP has contacted her may not know that the specific abnormality flagged is common, low-grade, and does not indicate cancer. The result without the conversation is a half-picture.

There is a reasonable counterargument. Many patients are entirely capable of handling results without distress and do not want to wait five days to access their own data. The paternalism argument is not trivial. But the policy is a reasonable compromise — it applies only to anatomical pathology and genetic testing (not routine blood tests, which have no delay), and it targets the category of results where misinterpretation in the absence of clinical context is most plausible.

The Medicare indexation context

The same 1 July package includes an update to Medicare rebates: all GP non-referred attendance items will increase by 2.6 per cent, while the CPI rise over the same period has been 4.2 per cent. A level B consultation — the standard 20-minute GP appointment item — rises from $43.90 to approximately $45.04.

This matters because it continues the real-term erosion of GP Medicare rebates that has been running for decades. When the rebate rises at a rate below CPI, general practice either absorbs the difference (reducing viability) or passes it on through reduced bulk billing or increased gap fees. The Services Australia Medicare schedule will reflect the new amounts from 1 July, but the underlying pressure on GP practices that the 2.6 per cent figure represents is not resolved by the indexation announcement.

For patients, this is relevant because it is one of the structural forces driving out-of-pocket costs for GP care upward. Knowing that context — that the gap between the rebate and the actual cost of running a GP appointment is widening year on year — makes the debate about bulk billing rates more legible.

1 July also introduces “enduring assignment of benefit” for three patient groups: aged care residents, MyMedicare-registered patients, and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation clients. For these groups, bulk billing consent can now be given once (digitally, via a payment terminal) rather than at every appointment.

For all other patients, digital consent for bulk billing via payment terminals is also now enabled from 1 July. This is an administrative simplification, not a clinical change — but for patients who have struggled with the paper-form consent process, particularly those with cognitive or vision difficulties, the digital pathway may make a difference.

2 cents

Check your My Health Record this week. If you have never done it, the process starts at myGov (my.gov.au). If you already have a myGov account linked to Medicare, your record is probably already there — you just have not looked at it.

From Sunday, your blood test results and imaging reports will start appearing there automatically if they were not before. It is worth knowing that the record exists, what it contains, and how to share access with a specialist you are seeing who needs the back-story.

For the Medicare indexation context: if you have noticed out-of-pocket costs for GP visits rising over the past few years, you are not imagining it. The rebate has been rising below CPI for a long time. That is a policy problem, not a practice problem — knowing the distinction is useful for navigating the system.

Verdict: yes — worth knowing about.

Sources cited

Medical Republic — Here’s everything changing on 1 July. 26 June 2026. https://www.medicalrepublic.com.au/heres-everything-changing-on-1-july/126817
My Health Record — Australian Digital Health Agency. https://www.myhealthrecord.gov.au/
Services Australia — Medicare. https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/medicare