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Grounded Scribe
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 1 May 2026.

  • Better Access
  • Clinical Psychologist (eligible under the Better Access initiative)
  • 2 variants

Items 80020–80025

Better Access — Clinical Psychologist (group therapy)

Psychological therapy group service provided in person by an eligible clinical psychologist under Better Access, to a group of 4 to 10 patients. 80020 = in-person group ≥60 min. 80025 = video-conference group ≥120 min from a telehealth-eligible area.

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.

ItemTime Location Typical use MBS Online
80020 ≥60 min In person In-person group therapy Open ↗
80025 ≥120 min Video conference (telehealth-eligible area, ≥15 km by road) Video group therapy Open ↗

Requirements to bill

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

  1. Each patient in the group must have a current referral from a referring practitioner under Better Access.
  2. Provider must be an eligible clinical psychologist registered with Medicare for Better Access.
  3. Group size must be 4 to 10 patients.
  4. For 80020: in person, at least 60 minutes face-to-face.
  5. For 80025: by video conference, at least 120 minutes; the patient must be in a telehealth-eligible area AND at least 15 km by road from the clinical psychologist at the time of service. Both conditions must be satisfied.
  6. Each session counts toward the patient's annual Better Access cap (10 individual + 10 group sessions per calendar year).

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, modality (in-person or video), and item number claimed.
  • Group composition — number of patients (with anonymised identifiers in any per-member file), facilitator(s).
  • Session topic / module and the focussed psychological strategy delivered.
  • Per-member: attendance, level of participation, response to the session, any risk concerns flagged for follow-up.
  • Group-level dynamics and any incidents.
  • Reference to each member's MHTP goals and how the session content addressed them.
  • For 80025: documentation that the patient was in a telehealth-eligible area AND at least 15 km by road from the clinical psychologist at the time of service.

Common audit failures

Patterns the Professional Services Review scheme and Medicare audits flag.

  • Group note does not record per-member attendance.
  • Session under the minimum duration for the item (60 min for 80020, 120 min for 80025).
  • Per-member files contain identifying information about other group members.
  • 80025 billed when the patient was not in a telehealth-eligible area, or was within 15 km by road of the clinical psychologist (both conditions must be satisfied).
  • No reference to MHTP goals in either the group session note or the per-member note.

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.

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.

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