Medicare & Private Health · Physio-Led Recovery
What you can claim: Medicare and private health
You can't claim a retreat on Medicare. But the clinical physiotherapy inside ours may be, on Medicare or through your private health extras. Here's what you can claim, and how.
Nobody books a burnout retreat expecting Medicare to help pay for it. Fair enough. Most retreats can't offer that, because most retreats aren't run by a registered physiotherapist. Ours is, and that changes what you can claim.
So here is the honest version, up front. You cannot claim a retreat on Medicare, and anyone telling you otherwise is worth a raised eyebrow. What you can potentially claim is the clinical part: the one-on-one physiotherapy consultations and physio-led rehabilitation sessions that treat the physical side of burnout. Those are genuine physiotherapy services, delivered by an AHPRA-registered physio, and they sit on your invoice like any other physio appointment. Which opens up two ways to claim that a yoga retreat simply can't.
A note before the detail: none of this is financial advice, and none of it is a promise of a particular rebate. Eligibility is your GP's call and your health fund's call, not ours. What we can do is deliver the clinical sessions properly and itemise them so that, if you're eligible, claiming is straightforward.
You pay upfront. We hand you the paperwork. The rebate comes back to you.
To keep your booking seamless, you settle your retreat in full with us upfront. We don't bulk-bill, and we don't deduct rebates at checkout. At the end of your stay we give you a formal, itemised clinical receipt with our AHPRA provider number on it. You upload that to the Express Plus Medicare app or your health fund's app, and your rebate is paid straight back to you. We format the paperwork so you don't have to think about it.
Medicare, via a GP Chronic Condition Management Plan
If the physical symptoms of your burnout (chronic musculoskeletal pain, tension headaches, persistent fatigue) have been going on for six months or more and your GP is managing them as a chronic condition, you may be eligible for a Medicare rebate on physiotherapy delivered under a GP Chronic Condition Management Plan (the single plan that replaced the old GP Management Plan and Team Care Arrangements from 1 July 2025). Worth knowing when you talk to your GP: the plan is usually written for the physical symptoms, not "burnout" as a word.
- The rebate: Medicare pays $63.40 per session straight back to your account (MBS item 10960, as at July 2026; it re-indexes each July).
- The cap: up to five allied health sessions per calendar year, shared across all your allied health (physio, podiatry, dietetics), not five each.
- The referral: your GP decides whether a plan is appropriate. If it is, they refer you for physiotherapy (by GP letter now, not the old CDM form), and the plan stays active for 18 months.
- The total: five eligible sessions is over $310 back, for the cost of a GP visit you were arguably due anyway.
The catch worth saying twice: the rebate is on the physiotherapy sessions, not the retreat.
Private health extras
If you hold private health extras that cover physiotherapy, your one-on-one physio consultations and physio-led rehabilitation sessions are typically claimable at your fund's physiotherapy rate, the same as at any physio clinic.
- Accurate itemising: tell us your fund and level of cover, and we'll itemise your clinical sessions accurately on your invoice (your initial individual assessment versus group physio-led rehabilitation) so you can claim exactly what your specific extras policy covers.
- No double-dipping: you can't claim the same session through both Medicare and your fund. That's a firm rule, not a grey area.
- Individual vs group: some funds only rebate individual consultations, not group sessions, so check your cover before you count on a group session being claimable.
No referral needed for this pathway. You just need physiotherapy on your extras.
What's claimable, and what isn't
We'd rather be blunt about this than have you chasing a rebate that was never going to land.
Claimable, if you're eligible
Your individual physiotherapy consultations, and physio-led rehabilitation sessions where your fund allows.
Not claimable
The accommodation, the meals, the retreat package itself, and the non-clinical activities. Those are yours to enjoy, not to claim.
Setting it up before you arrive
- See your GP before the retreat and ask whether a GP Chronic Condition Management Plan is right for you. If so, they'll refer you for physiotherapy.
- Check your private extras: whether physio is covered, your annual limit, and your per-visit rebate.
- Tell us what you've got. We'll allocate and itemise the clinical sessions correctly so that, if you're eligible, the claim is simple.
And yes, we know "just pop in to see your GP first" lands differently when you're running on empty. It's genuinely one appointment. Book it the same week you book us, while you're already in organising mode.
Why any of this is claimable at all
Because the clinical sessions are delivered by an AHPRA-registered physiotherapist and an ESSA-accredited exercise physiologist. Medicare and private funds only rebate genuine physiotherapy from a registered provider. That's the whole reason it's claimable here at all, and not at a retreat run by someone without the registration.
Common questions
The rebate questions we hear most
Not the retreat itself. But the individual physiotherapy sessions within it may be claimable if your GP has you on a Chronic Condition Management Plan and considers you eligible.
As at July 2026, $63.40 per eligible session (MBS item 10960), up to five allied health sessions per calendar year shared across all your allied health services. The figure re-indexes each July.
For the Medicare pathway, yes: a GP Chronic Condition Management Plan and a referral from your GP. For private health extras, no referral is needed, just physiotherapy cover on your policy.
Not for the same session. You can use one pathway for some sessions and the other for different sessions, but you cannot claim a single session twice.
Then the Medicare pathway won't apply, and that's a clinical call we respect. Your private health extras may still cover the physiotherapy sessions.
No, and we won't pretend otherwise. Eligibility and amounts are determined by your GP and your fund. Our part is delivering genuine clinical sessions and itemising them properly.
The retreat these sessions belong to
The Burnout Prescription is the five-day physio-led protocol the clinical sessions sit inside. Start there, or find out where you're actually at first.
On the NDIS rather than Medicare or private health? We run physio-led NDIS Short Term Respite too. See the NDIS respite page →
We're healthcare professionals, so here's the official version. This page is general information, not financial, taxation or medical advice. Medicare and private health rebate eligibility and amounts are set by your GP and your health fund, and can change. Figures current as at July 2026. Speak with your GP, your fund and, for tax questions, your accountant. Our goal is simply to make the clinical part of your recovery as transparent, accessible and affordable as we can.