Medicare To Dump Cash Payments This Year


Sounds good to me: Medicare is going to eliminate cash payments in its offices from this year, offering instant direct deposits into your bank account using your EFTPOS card instead.

Picture by Steven Depolo

Liz Tay at iTnews reports that a trial of the “credit EFTPOS” system in 43 Medicare offices has gone so well that the system will be rolled out to all 242 branches from July 1 this year. Already, 20 of those offices no longer offer cash payments. The new system means that clients can have payments made immediately into their accounts but don’t have their bank account details permanently stored. It’s also much faster than existing electronic funds transfer options, which can take several days.

My doctor bulk bills, so I actually can’t remember the last time I had to visit a Medicare office to get a refund. But apparently 26.6 million cash payments were made last year — an inefficiency which it seems sensible to correct. What’s your take?

Medicare branches to drop cash for real-time transfers [iTnews]


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