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The New OSHC Deed 2025: What Changed and Why It Matters

A practical guide for international students in Australia — the new oshc deed 2025: what changed and why it matters.

Published: 2026-06-11 Verified: 2026-06-11 by Editorial Desk

The Department of Health and Aged Care quietly rolled out a revised OSHC Deed at the start of 2026, and if you hold a student visa 500 in Australia, the fine print now shifts what you can claim, how much you pay, and where you can access care. This isn’t a marketing refresh — it’s a binding legal instrument that every registered provider (Bupa, Medibank, Allianz Care, nib, AHM) must follow. Miss the changes and you risk leaving money on the table or, worse, finding a gap in cover you assumed was there. This guide walks you through every pragmatic change, step by step, so you can make your policy work for you right now.

What the OSHC Deed Actually Controls

The OSHC Deed is the contract between the Australian Government and the five registered OSHC insurers. It dictates minimum benefit standards, allowed exclusions, premium-setting rules, and compliance obligations — not the glossy brochure. Every OSHC policy sold to a student visa 500 holder must mirror or exceed the Deed’s requirements. When the Deed changes, your coverage changes too, regardless of your insurer, because your policy is underwritten by the terms of that Deed in force at the time of renewal or issue.

The Deed covers:

What it does not mandate — and therefore what varies most between providers — are things like extras (dental, optical, physio), annual limits on certain services, and the exact handling of pre-existing conditions (the Deed allows a 12-month waiting period for pre-existing psychiatric and pregnancy conditions, but not for other medical conditions). The 2026 update tightens many of these areas and introduces new minimums.

Key Changes in the 2026 Deed Update

The new Deed framework, effective for all policies issued or renewed after 1 January 2026, makes four structural changes that you’ll feel on your next GP visit or pharmacy run.

  1. Indexed MBS benefits for outpatient services. Medical services are now reimbursed at 100% of the MBS fee as indexed on the date of service, not the fee from the previous calendar year. This eliminates the lag that meant you were constantly $3–$8 short on a standard GP consultation. For a Level B GP consult (item 23), that puts the benefit at $44.20 in 2026 instead of the previous $41.40. If your GP charges above the MBS, you still pay the gap, but the benefit itself now keeps pace with Medicare.

  2. Mental health minimums double. The minimum number of non-GP mental health consultations covered per calendar year rises from 10 to 20 sessions. These can be psychology, clinical psychology, or social worker appointments, provided they’re delivered by an MBS-registered provider. The Deed now requires insurers to cover at least 20 individual sessions (previously 10), and at least 10 group therapy sessions. Medibank and Allianz Care already bundled this into their comprehensive covers; Bupa and nib have updated their standard products to match the new floor.

  3. Telehealth permanence with stricter coding. All five providers must cover telehealth GP and specialist consultations at the same MBS rate as in-person, but only when the service is billed under a telehealth-specific MBS item number (e.g., 91800 for a phone consult, 91801 for video). Appointments billed as an ordinary face-to-face item and conducted via video no longer attract the higher rebate — insurers will process them as a telehealth claim with a lower MBS fee. This rewards clinics that use correct telehealth item codes and penalises those that don’t.

  4. PBS cost cap reset. The per-script cap increases from $42.50 to $50.00 for general PBS medicines, aligning with the general patient co-payment under the PBS safety net. If a medicine costs less than $50, you pay the actual price; if it’s above, OSHC covers the excess up to $50, and you pay the rest. This is slightly worse for expensive medicines if the pharmacy doesn’t apply a concessional rate, so always ask for the PBS concessional price if you’re eligible (most international students aren’t, but you can check).

Impact on Hospital and Medical Cover

The hospital benefits remain anchored to the state public hospital system. If you’re admitted as a public patient in a public hospital, the insurer pays the full bill at the state government’s contracted rate. If you become a private patient — either by choice or because you’re in a private hospital — OSHC covers the MBS fee for medical services and the accommodation and theatre costs only up to the minimum benefit set in the Deed. Any shortfall is your responsibility, and that shortfall can be thousands of dollars at a private facility.

The 2026 Deed does not change the shared-ward default, but it clarifies that if a public hospital lacks a shared ward and admits you to a private room, the insurer must still cover the full cost as if it were shared. This had been a grey area exploited by some hospitals to bill patients directly; the updated Deed explicitly closes that loophole.

For day surgery and specialist procedures, the new MBS indexation means the benefit for a common procedure like a wisdom tooth extraction under general anaesthetic (item 53455) is now $228.05 instead of $212.30. That’s a small but real improvement. You can check the exact MBS fee for any item number at mbsonline.gov.au to calculate your likely out-of-pocket before you book.

Mental Health Benefits: A Welcome Expansion

The jump to 20 psychology sessions per year with a minimum benefit is the most significant change for many students. Here’s exactly how it works:

Telehealth psychology sessions fall under the same MBS items and are covered identically, but only if the psychologist uses the telehealth-specific item numbers (e.g., 91170). This is critical: if your psychologist bills a standard face-to-face item despite conducting the session via video, your insurer may reduce the rebate. Confirm the item code before the session.

Telehealth and Digital GP Services

The 2026 Deed embeds telehealth permanently but forces you to be code-literate. All five insurers offer same-day telehealth GP through their apps or partner services, and the rebate is now exactly the MBS rate for the telehealth item — not the in-person item.

For a standard 15-minute phone consult (item 91800), the MBS rate is $39.10. Medibank’s OSHC app connects you to a GP via Medibank Health Solutions, and the claim is automatic — no out-of-pocket. Bupa links to Blua, a text-based GP service free for OSHC members; you pay $0 for the consult, and the insurer covers it under the MBS telehealth rate. Allianz Care’s Telehealth GP is also free at point of care using their partner, but check that the provider is using the correct code to avoid a partial denial.

If you use an external telehealth platform like InstantScripts or GP2U, the rebate depends entirely on the item code on the invoice. A prescription request via InstantScripts might be billed as a medication review (item 91817, $56.55) or a simple GP attendance, and the benefit changes accordingly. Download the tax invoice from your telehealth provider and cross-check the item number before lodging the claim; if it doesn’t start with 9, you’ll likely get the lower outpatient rate because the system treats it as an in-person claim.

How Premiums Shifted in 2026

The 2026 Deed also approved a weighted average premium increase of 4.2% across all providers — the Government publishes this figure each year. In practice, that translates to:

Couple and family rates follow similar increases. These are pre-tax and before any optional excess. All five providers offer an annual payment discount of around 5–6% if you pay 12 months upfront, which is worth doing if your visa has at least that long left — it avoids the monthly admin fee and locks in the 2026 rate even if premiums rise again in 2027.

If you took out cover in 2025 and it automatically renewed in 2026, your policy now runs under the new Deed. Check your member portal for the effective premium. All providers must give 30 days’ notice of any premium change, so if you see a higher debit on 1 January, they sent you an email in late November 2025 — search your inbox for “premium increase” and the provider name.

How to Check Your Policy Against the New Deed

Before you assume you’re covered, do a 5‑minute audit on your current OSHC policy:

  1. Log in to your insurer’s member portal.
    • Bupa: my.bupa.com.au
    • Medibank: member.medibank.com.au
    • Allianz Care: allianzcare.com.au/members
    • nib: my.nib.com.au
    • AHM: my.ahm.com.au
  2. Download your Policy Statement (not the PDS). The Policy Statement shows the effective benefit limits as of your most recent renewal date. Look for the mental health section — it should state “20 individual sessions per calendar year” as the minimum. If it says 10, your policy hasn’t yet been updated; call the insurer and request a reissue under the 2026 Deed.
  3. Check outpatient medical benefit wording. It must read “100% of the MBS fee” or “up to the MBS fee” not “up to 85%” or “capped at $X”. The Deed forbids percentage caps below 100% for MBS services.
  4. Review the prepaid or direct-access telehealth pages. Ensure you understand which codes are used and whether the service is genuinely free or if you’ll see a partial rebate.

If anything is off, you have grounds to request a correction or switch providers. The Deed is a minimum standard; insurers can go above but never below.

Switching OSHC Providers Without Losing Cover

Because the Deed sets a uniform floor, switching OSHC is now mostly about service quality, app usability, and extras. The big operational rule: you can switch insurers at any time, but the new insurer must credit the waiting periods you’ve already served. Do not cancel your old policy until the new one is active — overlap by at least one day.

Step-by-step switch process:

  1. Compare the 2026 plans from three providers on their own websites (do not rely on comparison sites that might mix OVHC and OSHC). Focus on the mental health session limit, telehealth access, and whether dental extras are included.
  2. Pick the new policy and start the online purchase. When asked for start date, set it to tomorrow. Request that the new insurer email you the Certificate of Insurance immediately — all five providers issue certificates same-day.
  3. Once you hold the new certificate, log into your old insurer’s portal and cancel the old policy. Use the “cancel” function; if it asks for a reason, select “switching provider”. Request a refund of any unused premium. Under Australian law, they must refund the unused portion minus a small admin fee (typically $25–$30), pro-rated.
  4. Upload the new Certificate of Insurance to your ImmiAccount within 24 hours to keep your visa condition 8501 compliant. There is no grace period; having no active OSHC for even a day is a visa breach.

If you’re stuck, UNILINK can handle the paperwork for you as a backup option — no cost and you get the certificate same day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: I joined in 2025 on the old Deed. Does my cover automatically upgrade to the 2026 benefits?

Yes. When your policy renews in 2026 — either at the anniversary date or at 1 January if you prepaid — it must comply with the Deed in force at the time of renewal. All insurers sent a renewal notice explaining the benefit changes. If you hold a policy that expired after 1 January 2026, you are covered under the new minimums. Double-check your Policy Statement’s mental health limit; if it still says 10, request a reissue.

Q2: Are the 20 mental health sessions per person