From 1 July, the Australian Government has restricted criteria for which Urine MCS testing is covered by Medicare.
For now, we will continue to bulk bill patients for all Urine MCS tests and we will update our referrers and patients if we make any changes to this process.
We have included updated Medicare criteria, effective 1 July 2025, below.
Please ensure that appropriate clinical notes are included on pathology request forms.
There may be an out-of-pocket charge for patients who do not meet Medicare criteria.
Medicare inclusion criteria
Patients with symptoms of urinary tract infection (UTI) OR clinically indicated asymptomatic patient group as follows:
- Pregnant women
- Children <16 years of age
- Recipients of renal transplant
- Recurrent UTI infections
- Haemodialysis for chronic kidney disease
- Urological instrumentation / procedures / transurethral resection of prostate
Medicare exclusion criteria
- Patients without appropriate clinical notes on their pathology requests
- Asymptomatic patients undergoing non-urological surgery
- Asymptomatic patients with spinal cord injuries
- Catheter stream urine (CSU) samples from patients with indwelling catheters
- Screening of asymptomatic patients of advanced age or in aged care facilities
- Screening of asymptomatic patients with diabetes
