Common questions
Everything you need to know about CostDoc, gap payments, and how to use pricing records before you book.
A gap payment (sometimes called an out-of-pocket cost) is the difference between what your specialist charges and what Medicare plus your private health insurer actually pays. If your surgeon charges $4,000 and the combined benefit is $2,800, your gap is $1,200.
CostDoc shows the median, range, and percentile spread of real patient-reported out-of-pocket costs for specific procedures in specific cities. We're not a quoting tool. We show what patients have actually paid so you can set a realistic baseline before getting written estimates.
Data comes primarily from anonymous patient submissions. Where government MBS data is available, we reference it alongside patient reports. Estimated baselines are clearly labelled as modelled figures. Patient submissions are checked against known Australian price ranges for plausibility before being included in statistics.
The median is the most useful number we publish. It strips out highly subsidised public patients and premium outliers by focusing on the middle 50% of reports (the interquartile range). Pages with fewer than 10 reports show an 'Early Signal' warning, so treat those figures as directional only.
No. Our figures show the out-of-pocket amount: what the patient paid after all rebates and insurer payments were applied. This is the number that matters for budgeting.
Each procedure page links directly to the Medicare coverage guide for that procedure. You can also browse medicare.costdoc.com.au-style pages from the navigation.
No. CostDoc is an independent Australian platform with no commercial relationship with any health fund, insurer, or provider network. Affiliate links on some pages are clearly disclosed.
Visit the takedown and claim page from the navigation, or go directly to your provider profile and use the 'Claim this profile' button. We review all correction requests within seven business days.
Use the Submit a Cost page. It takes about 60 seconds. All submissions are anonymous, and we never collect your name, Medicare number, or any identifying health information.
Pages regenerate every 24 hours via Next.js ISR. New patient submissions are incorporated into statistics within the same 24-hour cycle after verification. The 'Last updated' date on each page shows when the underlying data last changed.
If your question is not answered here, contact the CostDoc team directly.