Reference only — not billing advice

MBS items change. Verify the current descriptor, fee, and rules on MBS Online before billing. This page does not include a fee amount. Last reviewed 28 April 2026.

Specialist
Consultant Psychiatrist
3 variants

Items 296–299

Psychiatrist new-patient comprehensive consultation

Professional attendance lasting more than 45 minutes by a consultant psychiatrist following referral, where the patient is either new to this psychiatrist or has not received a professional attendance from this psychiatrist in the preceding 24 months. Item billed depends on location — consulting rooms (296), hospital (297), or other location (299).

Plain-English summary. See MBS Online for the verbatim descriptor of each item.

Which item should I bill?

All variants share the same documentation requirements (below). The item number you bill is determined by the actual face-to-face duration and the location.

Item	Time	Location	Typical use	MBS Online
296	More than 45 minutes	Consulting rooms	New patient seen in private rooms for the first comprehensive assessment.	Open ↗
297	More than 45 minutes	Hospital	New referral or 24-month re-attendance reviewed during a hospital admission.	Open ↗
299	More than 45 minutes	Other location (e.g. patient home)	Home visit or other community location.	Open ↗

Requirements to bill

Conditions imposed by the descriptor that must be met to claim any item in this family.

Current referral from a medical practitioner in general practice, a participating nurse practitioner, a specialist, or another consultant physician.
Attendance must last more than 45 minutes face-to-face.
Patient must be new to this consultant psychiatrist OR must not have received a professional attendance from this psychiatrist in the preceding 24 months.
In the preceding 24 months, no service under items 296, 297, 299, 300, 302, 304, 306, 308, 91827–91831, 91837–91839, 92437, or 92478–92483 has been provided to the patient by this psychiatrist (otherwise the standard time-banded attendance items apply, not the new-patient items).
Item billed must match the actual location — 296 = consulting rooms, 297 = hospital, 299 = other location.

Your notes must show

Documentation tests — what clinical notes need to record to match what the item asks, regardless of which variant you bill.

Date, start time, end time, and total face-to-face duration (>45 min).
Location of attendance (consulting rooms / hospital / home / other) — must match the item claimed.
Confirmation the patient is new to this psychiatrist OR no prior attendance by this psychiatrist in the preceding 24 months.
Referral details — referrer name and profession, referral date, and validity period.
Presenting concern, history of presenting complaint, past psychiatric history, past medical history, family history, social and developmental history.
Mental state examination — appearance and behaviour, speech, mood and affect, thought form and content, perception, cognition, insight, judgement.
Risk assessment — suicide, self-harm, harm to others, vulnerability, capacity.
Diagnosis or differential — DSM-5-TR or ICD-11 framing with reasoning and rule-outs.
Biopsychosocial formulation.
Treatment plan — pharmacological reasoning, non-pharmacological modalities, monitoring, psychoeducation, review interval.
Communication to the referrer (letter or summary) — best practice even where item 291 / 92435 is not claimed.

Common audit failures

Patterns the Professional Services Review scheme and Medicare audits flag.

New-patient item billed where the patient was seen by this psychiatrist in the preceding 24 months — the standard time-banded items (300/302/304/306/308) apply instead.
Consultation under 45 minutes — does not meet the time threshold for any item in the family.
Item-location mismatch — billing 296 for a home visit, or 297 for a private-rooms attendance.
No comprehensive history or MSE documented — note reads as a follow-up rather than an initial comprehensive assessment.
No risk assessment.
Confusion with item 291 — 291 carries the higher fee and the mandatory management-plan letter; auditors look for the letter when 291 is claimed.

Related MBS items

Diagnostic codes commonly billed under these items

ICD-10-AM diagnoses whose Medicare pathway includes this family of items. Click through to the diagnostic-code reference for differential codes and clinical context.

Templates that document these items

Note templates inside Grounded Scribe that produce documentation aligned to these MBS items.

Psychiatry Initial Consultation (291/296)Initial psychiatric assessment for new outpatients. Use MBS item 296 for a comprehensive new-patient consultation or 291 for a GP-managed patient assessment with management plan back to the GP. Covers presentation, history, MSE, risk, formulation, provisional diagnosis, and initial management.

In-depth reading in the Library

Source authority

Documentation tests on this page reference the descriptor conditions and PSR-audit patterns covered in our existing Library guides. Always confirm current rules against the official descriptor.

Last updated: 28 April 2026