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New Medicare check for three-year-olds starts November 2026
A new Medicare health check for three-year-olds will be available from 1 November 2026, pending passage of the Thriving Kids legislation. The once-per-lifetime item covers developmental milestones, family environment and relationships, eyesight, hearing, oral health, and height and weight. GPs must document findings, provide written reports to caregivers, and arrange referrals where needed.
Billing is via existing MBS health assessment items. For consultations under 30 minutes, the standard Level B item provides a better rebate; for 30 minutes or more, the health check item is financially preferable. Practices should start informing families of three-year-olds about the new item now.
Australia is about to have a Medicare-funded developmental health check for three-year-olds for the first time in more than a decade.
The Healthy Kids Check launches 1 November 2026 — pending passage of the Thriving Kids legislation — and delivers on a gap that GPs and paediatric health advocates have been flagging for years. The age-three window is not arbitrary. It sits right before the school-readiness period and after the early intervention window for developmental conditions including autism, where earlier identification changes outcomes.
For general practice, this is a new billable service arriving with a specific clinical mandate and some billing nuances worth knowing now.
What the check covers
The Healthy Kids Check is a once-per-lifetime item for Medicare-eligible three-year-olds. It covers:
- Developmental milestones — speech, language, motor, social, and cognitive development
- Family environment and relationships — a structured assessment of the child’s home context
- Behaviour — patterns that may indicate emerging developmental concerns
- Physical health — eyesight, hearing, oral health, height, and weight
GPs must provide developmental advice to caregivers, arrange any necessary interventions or referrals, document findings in the patient record, and offer a written report to the caregiver. This is not a brief opportunistic check — it has a structured content requirement.
The item is delivered via existing MBS health assessment pathways. Fellows billing at the higher rate and non-fellows use different item numbers, but the content requirements are the same.
Both sides of this
The public health case for this check is strong. Early identification of developmental delays — particularly for autism, hearing loss, and vision impairment — is most effective when it happens before school entry. The age-three window is clinically deliberate: early enough to capture children before formal education reveals the gap through failure, late enough that many developmental patterns are established.
For a 45-year-old parent with a three-year-old — a profile more common than population averages suggest — access to a subsidised developmental assessment in general practice removes a financial barrier to early investigation. Paediatric developmental assessments, occupational therapy assessments, and speech pathology waitlists are long and expensive. The Healthy Kids Check does not replace a specialist developmental assessment, but it creates a documented clinical pathway into one.
The complication is structural. The billing calculus favours the check only for consultations 30 minutes or longer — for shorter appointments, the standard Level B item returns a better rebate. That creates a real tension for practices: the check has content requirements that, done properly, take time. Done hastily, the check becomes a tick-box exercise that misses the developmental concerns it was designed to catch.
General practice is already under significant time pressure. Adding a once-per-lifetime structured developmental assessment to the appointment mix is not straightforward. The clinical value is real; the implementation requires intentional scheduling.
What this means in general practice this week
Identify your three-year-old patients. Before November, practices can flag patients who will turn three between now and the new year. Families of children in that window are the first cohort to reach out to.
Book long enough appointments. The billing structure rewards 30-minute or longer checks, and the content requirements — developmental milestones, family environment, physical examination, documentation, and a written report — are not compatible with a 10-minute slot. A 30-minute booking, clearly communicated to the family in advance, sets the consultation up for the check to be done properly.
Know what referral pathways exist. The check mandates referral where concerns are identified. Knowing which paediatric developmental services, speech pathologists, audiologists, and vision assessment services operate in your area — and what their current wait times look like — means the check creates action, not just documentation.
Track the Thriving Kids legislation. The November 1 date is contingent on legislative passage. The Medical Republic notes this caveat clearly. The clinical planning and patient outreach can start now; the item only activates on legislative clearance.
A Medicare-funded developmental check for three-year-olds is a meaningful addition to what general practice can offer families. The value is in doing it properly.
Verdict: yes — a new MBS check for three-year-olds is arriving in November. Practices that prepare now will be positioned to deliver the check well, not just on time.
Sources cited
Frequently asked questions
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Is the Healthy Kids Check the same as the old child health check?
The new Medicare Healthy Kids Check targets three-year-olds specifically, with a once-per-lifetime limitation. It covers developmental milestones, family relationships and environment, eyesight, hearing, oral health, height, and weight. The item launches 1 November 2026 pending the Thriving Kids legislation. It uses existing MBS health assessment items rather than a new standalone item number.
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Which patients are eligible for the Healthy Kids Check?
Medicare-eligible three-year-olds only. Children under three or over four are not eligible. The check is once per lifetime. GPs must document findings, provide a written report to the caregiver, and arrange any necessary interventions or referrals.