The Veterans’ Health Check: What It Covers and Why It’s Worth Doing Properly

What it is

The Veterans’ Health Check (previously the ADF Post-Discharge GP Health Assessment) is a dedicated, funded consultation for former ADF members. It is not a general check-up with a veteran in the chair — it is a defined assessment with mandatory content set by regulation, aimed at the things that actually go wrong after service and are most often missed.

It sits under clause 2.15.10 of the Health Insurance (General Medical Services Table) Regulations 2021, with MBS explanatory note AN.0.69.

Who is eligible

A former serving member of the ADF — permanent or reserve forces — with at least one day of continuous full-time service, who has transitioned out of the ADF and meets DVA’s current Veterans’ Health Check criteria. The cohort has been expanded over time; if you have separated and have never had one, ask.

The assessment must be done by your usual GP or a prescribed medical practitioner — meaning one who has provided at least 50% of your primary care in the last 12 months, or is expected to provide at least 50% over the next 12.

Once per lifetime. This is a one-off item — it cannot be claimed again. Which is the strongest argument for having it done by someone who understands ADF service, because you only get the one.

The item numbers and what they pay

Four items, by time taken:

• 701 — up to 30 minutes, brief. MBS fee $69.20; DVA pays $79.58
• 703 — up to 45 minutes, standard. MBS $160.85; DVA $184.98
• 705 — up to 60 minutes, long. MBS $222.00; DVA $255.30
• 707 — more than 60 minutes, prolonged. MBS $313.60; DVA $360.64

DVA pays 115% of the MBS schedule fee, and there are DVA-specific equivalents — MT701 to MT707 — billed through DVA rather than Medicare. Fees quoted are current as at 1 July 2025 and are indexed, so confirm before relying on them.

Worth understanding what that fee structure implies. A proper Veterans’ Health Check that covers everything clause 2.15.10 requires — full service history, three validated screening tools, examination, medication review, and a plan — does not fit in thirty minutes. The existence of items 705 and 707 is the regulator acknowledging that.

What must be covered

Clause 2.15.10 sets mandatory content. All seven domains:

1. ADF service history

Service type (permanent, reserve or both), enlistment and discharge dates, corps or trade, rank at discharge, number of deployments with locations and dates, and reason for discharge — medical, voluntary, end of contract.

2. Social history

Relationship status, children, current employment, living situation, and social supports and connectedness.

3. Physical health

Current complaints, musculoskeletal assessment, cardiovascular risk, respiratory, hearing and tinnitus screening, pain, sleep quality, physical activity, and examination findings.

4. Psychological health — with validated tools

Three screens, scored and interpreted:

• PC-PTSD-5 — Primary Care PTSD Screen. A score of 3 or more is positive.
• K10 — Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, scored 10–50. 10–15 low, 16–21 moderate, 22–29 high, 30–50 very high.
• AUDIT-C — alcohol consumption. 4 or more for men, 3 or more for women is positive for hazardous drinking.

Plus mental health history, current symptoms, previous treatment, and substance use.

5. Social function

Activities of daily living, social participation and isolation, the impact of conditions on function, and occupational and family functioning.

6. Medications

Everything — name, dose, frequency, indication — including over-the-counter and complementary medicines, and adherence.

7. Management plan

Whether health care, education or other assistance should be offered; referrals made; follow-up; DVA entitlements discussed including White Card, Gold Card and non-liability health care conditions; Open Arms referral if indicated; and any urgent safety concerns addressed.

Why the screening scores matter beyond the appointment

This is the part most veterans never hear. A documented PC-PTSD-5 of 4, or a K10 of 31, or an AUDIT-C of 7, is not just a clinical flag. It is contemporaneous medical evidence, dated and recorded by your usual GP, of the presence and severity of symptoms.

Mental health claims are refused more often for lack of documentation than for lack of illness — and the most common refusal reason is nothing in the records. A Veterans’ Health Check done properly is one of the cleanest ways to start a record that did not exist before. It does not manufacture anything; it documents what is actually there.

The same goes for the physical side. Hearing and tinnitus screening at the health check is often the first audiological note since discharge. Musculoskeletal findings recorded at 35 matter enormously to an impairment assessment at 55, and to the clinical-onset question that decides many SoP factors — see why clinical onset, not claim date, is what the windows measure.

The management plan is the useful half

A health check that ends with “all fine, see you in a year” has wasted the item. Done properly, the plan should leave you with:

• Treatment started where it is needed — and for mental health that means non-liability health care, which needs no diagnosis and no claim.
• Referrals to psychology, psychiatry or allied health, on a treatment cycle referral where relevant.
• Entitlements explained — which card you may be eligible for, and why. See card eligibility.
• An honest conversation about claiming, if the history suggests conditions worth claiming that never were.

What it is not

It is not a claim, and it is not a permanent impairment assessment. It rates nothing and compensates nothing. It also should not be bundled with a separate consultation unless clinically necessary.

And it is not a substitute for having your record read. The health check captures where you are now, from what you can tell the doctor in an hour. What it cannot do is find the fifteen conditions documented across four hundred pages of service and civilian records that nobody has read — that is a chart review, and it is a different job.

Used together they are complementary: the chart review establishes the documented history, the health check establishes the current state, and between them you have both halves of the picture a claim needs.

How to arrange one

Ask your usual GP whether they do Veterans’ Health Checks, and whether they will allocate the time for a long or prolonged assessment rather than a brief one. If your GP has not done one before, the assessment tool and MBS guidance are published by DVA and Services Australia.

If you would rather have it done by a practice that works with veterans daily — and by a doctor who has served — that is what we do.

Talk to us

Call 0429 146 039 or email reception@vhc.org.au — Veterans Health Centre, Ipswich, Queensland.

If any of this is difficult to read, Open Arms — Veterans and Families Counselling is free, confidential and available 24/7 on 1800 011 046.

Related reading

DVA healthcare at VHC · Non-liability health care · The CVC Program · Veteran Card eligibility · Chart reviews · Mental health compensation

General information for Australian veterans, current as at 12 September 2026; not medical advice. Sources: clause 2.15.10 of the Health Insurance (General Medical Services Table) Regulations 2021; MBS explanatory note AN.0.69; MBS items 701, 703, 705 and 707 and the DVA MT-series equivalents. Fees quoted are as at 1 July 2025 and are indexed — confirm current fees and eligibility with DVA on 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372).