Information for medical specialists

The Medical Costs Finder Portal and information for you and your patients

The Medical Costs Finder is a guide only. It is not a substitute for a medical quote, diagnosis or Informed Financial Consent.

Access the Medical Costs Finder Portal

If you're interested in participating as a specialist, you can sign up, login or register interest to the Medical Costs Finder Portal.

GPs are unable to participate on the Medical Costs Finder Portal at this time.

Sign up or login now

Participation is voluntary and open for eleven (11) non-GP specialist areas to help improve costs transparency for patients.


As at 31 January 2024, the list of eligible specialities is:

  • Cardiology
  • Cardiothoracic surgery
  • Gastroenterology and hepatology
  • General surgery (abdominal and gastrointestinal)
  • General surgery (breast)
  • Obstetrics and gynaecology
  • Opthalmology
  • Orthopaedic surgery
  • Otolaryngology (ENT) head and neck surgery
  • Plastic and reconstructive surgery
  • Urology

For further information refer to:
Portal services per specialty
Portal terms of use
Portal privacy notice

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) on the Medical Costs Finder

Professor Steve Robson

I'm at my practice with Brian Kelleher from the Department of Health and Aged Care to talk about the Medical Cost Finder. This website helps patients better understand the medical costs they're likely to face when seeking private treatment for the more common services and specialties. We all know how important fee transparency and informed financial concerns is for our patients, and one of the ways we can support our patients is by including our fees in the medical cost Finder.

The AMA is listening to the concerns of the profession and worked with the department to make it much easier and quicker than use the MCF and to make it clearer to the patient the fees are indicative fees and not the quot. Brian is here to talk more about participating in the Medical Cost Finder and the simpler process for adding your fees.

Brian Kelleher

Thanks, Steve. We've heard from patients that when they start their private health journey there are many unknowns, including costs. We've even heard of patients putting off seeking care because they think it will be too expensive.

When people know upfront what sort of costs they can expect, you can help them plan and ease some of the stress of starting specialist treatment. This is what makes the Medical Cost Finder a really important tool for consumers. The website can help your patients prepare for an informed discussion with you, including your fees, and feel more confident in shared decision making about their treatment.

We've listened to the feedback we've received over the last 12 months about the time it took to register, and we've addressed that. To start using the MCF. You now only need to enter one indicative fee for one out of hospital location, for example your initial appointment. Once you're registered and you can do that through PRODA, you can invite a member of your practice staff to help you manage your account and make things easier for you.

That person can at your direction assist you to add or remove service and fee information at any time to keep it up to date. Importantly, you have full control of your information and can edit or pause your profile at any time, and we're here to help you.

The Medical cost Finder Portal includes a phone number for our dedicated contact centre so you can talk to someone if you need to. There's also a help page with a host of downloadable resources.

Professor Steve Robson

Well, adding my fees was pretty straightforward. I know some of us found it a bit time consuming trying to do this early on, but the changes the department has made mean fewer steps and a much faster process. I'd say it took me less than 5 minutes. Medical Cost Finder is one way we can help our patients to be better informed and prepared to seek medical care.

As you know, the AMA supports fair and transparent fee setting as part of the informed financial consent process to benefit our patients. I encourage you all to join me in adding your fees and participating in the Medical Cost Finder.

Read the AMA’s position statements which encourage specialists to participate in the Medical Costs Finder.

Information that the Portal collects and publishes

You can publish your practice locations, indicative fees and any gap arrangements for select high-volume typical services.

You will be able to complete a public profile. This includes your credentials, qualifications, and years of experience. Additional information can also be published to your profile, including languages spoken, practice website link and participation in clinical quality registries.

Your information is controlled by you and your authorised persons. All users must abide by the Portal terms of use.

How the Portal collects and stores data

You can read about how the Medical Costs Finder Portal collects, maintains, protects and shares personal information in the privacy notice.

You can also see how privacy risks were assessed throughout the development of the Medical Costs Finder Portal in the Supplementary Privacy Impact Assessment – Summary.

Supporting patients through Informed Financial Consent

The Medical Costs Finder helps patients understand the costs of common medical services.

If you’re a referring medical professional, you may need to help your patient understand the implications of out-of-pocket costs.

We encourage specialists to provide patients their cost information including any likely out-of-pocket costs before treatment, and then obtain the patient’s agreement to proceed.

Informed patients contribute towards better Informed Financial Consent outcomes. The Australian Medical Association’s Guide on Informed Financial Consent (opens in new tab) is a helpful resource for both specialists and patients.

Supporting patients online

The National Health Services Directory (NHSD) lists the services health professionals provide across Australia. Participation on the NHSD improves accessibility to consumers and health professionals.

Specialists, including GPs, are encouraged to participate either by:

The information on the Medical Costs Finder is a guide only and should not be used as a quote or medical diagnosis.