In short: A free simulator for Australian general practices that models the net revenue effect of moving part of the patient base from bulk billing to a gap fee, including forfeited bulk billing incentives, patient attrition and the BBPIP.
What a gap fee is actually worth once you subtract the bulk billing incentive you stop receiving, the patients who leave, and the practice program you forfeit. Most owners have only ever done the first line of this sum.
Free · Your numbers · Break-even shown
Sets the bulk billing incentive you forfeit per privately billed consult — verified MBS Online rates, 1 July 2026.
Costs each lost patient at the right Medicare benefit.
Run it at 5, 10 and 20 per cent and watch the break-even line.
Leaving full bulk billing forfeits it.
Adjust the scenario — the simulation updates live using rates verified on MBS Online at 1 July 2026.
The naive calculation is consults times gap fee. The real one has three subtractions. First, every consult you privately bill stops earning the bulk billing incentive item — in metropolitan Melbourne that is $22.40 per Level B–E consult at the 1 July 2026 rate, which is more than half of a $40 gap. Second, some patients leave, and each one takes the Medicare benefit and the incentive with them. Third, if you were in the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program, the 12.5 per cent goes. The break-even line the tool draws is the attrition rate at which the gap stops paying; if you would not bet on staying under it, the answer is a different gap, a different share of patients, or a different plan.
Gap fee income on the consults you move to private billing, less the bulk billing incentive you stop receiving on those consults, less the consults you lose to attrition (both the rebate and the incentive on those), and the 12.5 per cent practice program if you currently receive it and would leave it. It ignores card fees, changed appointment length and doctor pay splits — model those with your accountant.
Because the incentive you forfeit by privately billing a consult is real money. Pick your Modified Monash area and the verified rate loads automatically — from $22.40 in MM1 (item 75870) up to $43.15 in MM7 (item 75876), all MBS Online benefit amounts with schedule fees updated 1 July 2026. The rate stays editable because it indexes every July.
We will not give you one, because it depends on the suburb, the alternatives nearby, how the change is communicated and whether concession patients keep being bulk billed. Run it at 5, 10 and 20 per cent and look at the break-even line the tool draws — that is the number to plan around.
An estimate from the numbers you enter, for planning conversations only. It is not billing, legal, tax or financial advice. Verify every item number and rebate on MBS Online before you bill.
Your scenario and the numbers. Jamal gets a copy; no mailing list.
On its way. If you ticked the box, expect a call or text from 0403 275 771.