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How to Start GP Home Visits in Australia: A Step-by-Step Guide

Starting a home visit practice does not mean starting a clinic. You already hold the registration, the provider number and the clinical skills. What is missing is a way to find patients, book them, get paid and stay compliant without building a business from scratch.

Step 1: Confirm what you already have

Most GPs already hold the three things a home visit practice depends on: current registration with AHPRA, a Medicare provider number for the location you will bill from, and professional indemnity insurance. The Medical Board lists your obligations as a registered practitioner, including holding appropriate indemnity cover. C.A.L.L.S verifies all three before a profile goes live (source: C.A.L.L.S how it works).

Step 2: Check your indemnity cover includes home visits

The Medical Board's registration standards require practitioners to be covered for all aspects of their practice. Ask your insurer (for example MDA National, Avant or MIGA) to confirm in writing that attending patients at home is covered, and tell them if you intend to do it regularly.

Step 3: Understand how Medicare applies to home visits

Medicare lists home visits as attendances other than in consulting rooms, with items tiered by attendance length. For example, MBS item 37 covers a general practitioner attendance of at least 20 minutes outside consulting rooms. Rebates and rules change, so always check the current schedule on MBS Online before setting fees. Full detail is in our Medicare billing guide.

Step 4: Build a simple medical bag

The RACGP's Standards for general practices recognise home visits as part of accessible general practice when safe and reasonable, for example when a patient is confined by illness or disability. What you carry is your clinical judgement, and our equipment checklist is a practical starting point rather than a regulatory list.

Step 5: Decide your fee and your service area

On C.A.L.L.S you set your own fee, suburbs and availability, and every visit is booked as a 30-minute time slot (source: C.A.L.L.S how it works). Typical C.A.L.L.S fee ranges are covered in what GPs earn doing home visits.

Step 6: Get booked and paid without running a back office

C.A.L.L.S handles patient confirmation, en route alerts and ETA updates, and releases payment once you have completed the required paperwork and the patient has confirmed the visit is complete, with weekly settlement every Tuesday and no commission taken. Ask your patient to tick the confirmation box on their dashboard before you leave, so there is nothing to chase later (source: C.A.L.L.S how it works). Plans and what each includes are on the pricing page.

Step 7: Start small and scale

You do not have to leave your current job. Your membership starts only after your first booking is confirmed, and the signup fee comes off that first invoice (source: C.A.L.L.S how it works).