Income Protection Insurance for Doctors: An AU Guide
A long list sits in your task app. Patients are waiting, reports need signing, and your hands, judgement,
May 25, 2026
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For doctors and medical professionals
We help doctors and medical professionals optimise tax, protect wealth and invest with purpose, with accounting, tax and financial planning under one roof.
Who we work with
Solutions we offer
Medical careers come with high income, long hours and complex decisions. We bring tax, advice and lending together so nothing falls through the cracks.
Salary packaging, deductions and structures, so your tax reflects the rules that apply to you.
Contribution caps, SMSFs and planning the income you will need in retirement.
A diversified plan matched to your goals, timeframe and comfort with risk.
Binding nominations and testamentary trusts, working alongside your lawyer.
Debt recycling, refinancing and budgets that work with rosters and changing income.
Our credit team compares home and car loan options from a range of lenders.
Why Everglow
Your accountant, tax agent and financial planner work side by side, so your tax, super and investments line up.
From training years and registrar contracts to practice ownership and service arrangements.
Many of our team speak both languages, so you can talk through your finances the way you prefer.
Inside the practice
A doctor’s income runs through a service agreement, a split, Medicare remittances and three different tax regimes. Most advisers only see the number at the end. We start with the agreement and the money flow, because that’s where the wins and the risks sit.
CPD for doctors
Everglow is a CPD Home Certified Learning Provider for 2026. Our course Tax and Business Structures for Australian Doctors: From Intern to Practice Owner counts as 1 hour of Educational Activities for the 2026 CPD year.
A 65/35 or 70/30 split is really a service and facilities fee, often 30–40% of billings depending on location, billing mix and what’s included. We check what that fee actually buys: rooms, reception, nurse time on your care plans and 10997s, consumables, after-hours cover, bad debts, and how BBPIP and other incentives are shared.
How we help: We benchmark your fee and put a dollar value on each clause.
The model many practices now use: patient fees and Medicare benefits are paid into the doctor’s own account (or a trust account held for the doctor), and the practice invoices its service fee plus GST. Your medical services are GST-free; the practice’s service fee isn’t. Done properly, the agreement, provider numbers and bank flows all tell the same story.
How we help: We check your state’s payroll tax rules before anything changes, because some concessions set their own conditions on how money flows.
Daily rate or percentage of billings, minimum guarantees, travel and accommodation, location-specific provider numbers and who bills what. A guaranteed daily rate with set hours can look more like employment for super and payroll tax, and billing through a company brings in the personal services income (PSI) rules.
How we help: We compare offers on an after-tax basis and flag the classification risk.
The best conversations are calm and backed by evidence: comparable splits, what the fee includes, a fair share of incentives, and written terms on restraint, notice, patient records and leaving. Practice owners respect doctors who understand the business side.
How we help: We prepare the numbers and talking points; your health lawyer drafts or reviews the agreement.
Since 1 July 2025, chronic condition management items 965 (prepare a GP chronic condition management plan) and 967 (review, available up to every three months) have replaced 721, 723 and 732. For patients registered in MyMedicare, these are claimed through their registered practice. A current plan supports up to five allied health services a year, and practice nurse support under item 10997 (up to five a year).
Same-day item combinations, billing order, bulk-billing incentive items, telehealth equivalents and after-hours items all change the result. The Professional Services Review looks at patterns, not just single claims.
How we help: We review your item mix with you so it’s compliant first, then complete. Clinical and coding decisions stay with you.
Practice Incentives Program (PIP) payments such as the Quality Improvement incentive; the Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) Practice Stream for nurses and allied health; and since 1 November 2025, the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program: a 12.5% loading on eligible MBS benefits for MyMedicare-registered practices that bulk bill every eligible patient, split 50/50 between the practice and the GP.
How we help: We model whether fully bulk billing works for your patient mix, after GP shares, payroll tax and staffing.
Service fee revenue per GP and per consulting room, room use by session, wages and rent as a share of revenue, nurse item billings per FTE, bulk-billing rate and debtor days. Two practices with the same turnover can have very different profit, and very different sale value.
How we help: We set up a simple dashboard and compare it with similar practices.
Rent from an approved pathology collection centre must be a permitted benefit under Part IIBA of the Health Insurance Act 1973: in line with market value and not linked to the number or value of requests. Rent more than 20% above market value is treated as substantially different from market value. Collection centres need Department approval, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing audits arrangements and sends “please explain” letters, and penalties can apply to both the provider and the requesting practice. One major provider was ordered to pay $1.65 million in 2023.
How we help: Get an independent market valuation, keep volume-linked terms out of the lease and review it at every renewal. We plan around it; your lawyer drafts it.
Since Thomas and Naaz (NSW, 2021–22), revenue offices treat many service and facilities arrangements as “relevant contracts”, so payments to contractor doctors can be taxable wages of the practice. Each state has since responded differently, mostly tied to bulk billing.
| QLD | Exemption for payments to contracted GPs, from 1 December 2024. |
| NSW | Rebate where the practice meets bulk-billing thresholds (80% metro Sydney, 70% elsewhere). |
| VIC | Exemption for bulk-billed (fully Medicare-funded) GP services, from 1 July 2025. |
| SA | Exemption for bulk-billed GP services, from 1 July 2024. |
| ACT | Exemption for bulk-billed, DVA and similar services, from 1 July 2025. |
| WA | Relevant-contract rules haven’t been applied to medical practices in the same way; status is tested under common law. |
| TAS | Rules are harmonised with NSW and VIC; no specific GP concession enacted at the time of writing. |
How we help: We map the exposure, use the concessions you’re entitled to, and tidy agreements before a review, not after.
Service trust or company structures, practice and property ownership, buying in or selling out, goodwill, finance for fit-outs and equipment, and using super well as an owner. The practice plan and your personal wealth plan should be the same plan.
How we help: We connect the business numbers to your retirement, insurance and estate plans.
Payroll tax isn’t the only question. The same arrangement is tested by different regulators, each with its own definition. Fix one and you can create a problem in another.
State and territory revenue offices
Asks whether this is a “relevant contract” for services. Payments to a contractor can be wages even when the doctor isn’t an employee.
Australian Taxation Office
Asks whether the contract is wholly or principally for the person’s labour. A contractor paid mainly for their own work can be an employee for super. Under Payday Super (from 1 July 2026), SG must reach the fund within 7 days of payday, so mistakes compound faster.
Australian Taxation Office
Asks whether income is personal services income (PSI) and whether a personal services business test is met, and looks at how profits are allocated across a practice group under its professional firms guidance.
General information only, current as at October 2026. Medicare, incentive and payroll tax rules change and depend on your state and circumstances. This isn’t legal or tax advice for your situation: have your service agreement reviewed by a health lawyer and consider your own circumstances before acting.
We also help with practice accounting, payroll tax, service arrangements and growth planning.
Guides for doctors
A long list sits in your task app. Patients are waiting, reports need signing, and your hands, judgement,
A strong income often creates an uncomfortable pattern. You work hard, your taxable income climbs, and each year
A registrar finishes a hospital shift, checks a locum invoice on their phone, and wonders whether the extra
Access exclusive home loan benefits for medical professionals. Learn about LMI waivers and preferential rates with our doctor home loan guide.
Learn what a discretionary trust is and how it works in Australia. Explore the benefits of asset protection and tax-effective income distribution for families.
General guidance for Australian GP practices reviewing Medicare billing patterns, practice profitability, workflow quality and compliance-aware financial management.
Quick self-check
We can review salary packaging, deductions and how investment property is structured, to make sure your tax outcome reflects the rules that apply to you.
We can review income protection, trauma and life cover, and how each is structured, so your income and family are protected.
Our credit team can compare home loan options from a range of lenders to suit your needs.
We can help with estate planning, including testamentary trusts and binding death benefit nominations. We work alongside your lawyer, who prepares your will.
Book a time to talk through your tax, super, insurance and investments with our team.
General advice warning: This page is general information only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Consider whether it is appropriate for you, and read any relevant Product Disclosure Statement, before making a decision. Financial advice is provided by Everglow Wealth Pty Ltd, a Corporate Authorised Representative (No. 1254987) of PGW Financial Services Pty Ltd (AFSL 384713). Credit assistance is provided by Everglow Capital Pty Ltd (ACL 544654). Tax services are provided by Everglow Accounting Pty Ltd.