Eirly lets practitioners order eligible pathology tests under their own Medicare provider number, so the test is claimed against Medicare instead of being billed to your organisation.
This article covers what you need in place, how to add provider details, and how Medicare ordering works day to day.
Before you start
Three things must be in place before a Medicare order can be placed:
Medicare ordering is enabled for your organisation. You'll find the next steps on completing this below. Please get in touch if you're not sure whether it's active.
The practitioner has a role that allows Medicare ordering. This is opt-in. Under Settings → Roles, an owner needs to create or edit a role with the "Order with Medicare provider number" capability and assign it to the practitioner. Without this capability, the Medicare option won't appear anywhere in the platform.
The practitioner's provider details are on file for that organisation (a valid provider number plus an applied signature). See the next section.
Setting up a practitioner
Setup starts in Settings → Result routing, where provider details are entered. What happens next depends on whose details they are:
Setting up your own details? You'll be prompted to add your signature as soon as you save, so it's one continuous flow — enter, sign, done. This is the usual case for practitioners who own their organisation.
Someone else setting up yours? They can save your provider details, but the signature has to come from your account. You add it under Personal settings → Provider Numbers afterwards.
Once provider details exist, the practitioner can update them from their personal settings
Owner setup first (optional, but it saves time)
Two settings at the top of Settings → Result routing are worth filling in before you add any practitioners:
Practice address - tied to your Medicare provider numbers and printed on Medicare referrals. Setting it here pre-fills each practitioner's provider address, and they can still change their own.
Result routing notifications - the email addresses we notify when a lab confirms it's routing a practitioner's Medicare results to you, or confirms a stop. This defaults to the organisation owner's email. One email per line. If you have a receptionist or assistant who these details, you can add them here as well.
Step 1: Enter the provider details
Go to Settings → Result routing.
Scroll to the Practitioners section, which will list every practitioner in the organisation and shows their provider number, signature, and result routing status.
Select Add provider
In the Provider details dialog, enter the Provider Number, Provider Name, and Provider Address, then Save.
This is where every provider number is first added, whether you're setting up your own or someone else's.
Step 2: Signatures
If you entered your own details - you're the practitioner, and your role has the Medicare ordering capability, a signature prompt appears as soon as you save. Draw your signature on screen, with a signature pad, mouse, or touchscreen, and setup is complete. Signatures can't be uploaded as an image file.
If someone else entered the details for you, there's no prompt on their side to complete. They can save your provider details, but the signature has to come from your account. Let the practitioner know their details are ready, and they'll add it themselves:
Click the profile icon in the top right.
Go to Personal settings.
Open the Provider Numbers tab.
Under Profile signature, select Add signature and draw it. This is a reusable signature, it only needs adding once.
Under Your organisations, apply it to the organisation.
Either way, each organisation keeps its own copy of the signature. Updating a profile signature later doesn't change organisations that are already set up. To update one, go to Personal settings → Provider Numbers and re-apply it there.
Changing your details later
Once your provider details exist for an organisation, Personal settings → Provider Numbers is where you change them. Your provider number, provider name, and provider address are all editable there, per organisation.
What you'll need
Field | Added by | Changed later by | Notes |
Provider number | Owner or administrator | Practitioner | Validated when entered. One provider number per organisation. |
Provider name | Owner or administrator | Practitioner | Pre-filled from the practitioner's member record. |
Provider address | Owner or administrator | Practitioner | Pre-filled from the organisation's practice address where one is set. |
Signature | Practitioner only | Practitioner | Added once as a profile signature, then applied to each organisation. |
Making sure results come back to you
Separately from ordering, labs need to know that you now order through Eirly so your results route back automatically.
This step is advisory, it never blocks an order. You can start ordering before the labs have confirmed.
How to notify labs
Go to Settings → Result routing.
Find yourself in the Practitioners section and select Manage routing.
Choose the laboratories you want to notify.
Review the details being disclosed - your title, name, provider number, Medical Objects number, address, phone, email, and signature, and male corrections as needed.
Consent, and submit.
This sends an email to each lab you selected, confirming your details and attaching your signature, as a formal request to route your results. The lab has to reply before the connection is confirmed.
Owners and administrators can view and prepare this section, but the notification and consent must be submitted from the practitioner's own account.
What can and can't be ordered under Medicare
Pathology (blood) tests only.
No prices are shown for Medicare tests, because they aren't billed to your organisation.
Bundles can mix billing types. A bundle can include both commercially billed tests and Medicare tests.
Mixed bundles produce two referrals - one commercial and one Medicare. This is because pathology labs process the two streams separately. It's expected behaviour, not a duplicate.
Placing a Medicare order
Once your Medicare details are set up, Test Bundles is where you start.
Go to Test Bundles and build your bundle. Set the billing mode to Medicare. This option only appears once your provider number and signature are on file and you have a role that allows Medicare ordering.
Choose Order for… (for a Medicare-only bundle) or Buy for… (for a mixed bundle) and select the patient.
Enter the patient's Medicare number: 10 digits, plus their 1-digit IRN if you have it.
Add clinical notes if needed. These appear on the referral.
Place the order.
Self-serve sharing is turned off for Medicare orders. You can't generate a public link for a patient to claim a Medicare order themselves, the practitioner orders directly for a named patient.
Reading the statuses
Status | What it means |
Not set up | No automatic result destination at that lab yet. |
Pending confirmation | The lab has been notified and we're waiting on their reply. |
Connected | The lab has confirmed via email. We email your result routing notification addresses when this happens. |
Action needed | Routing was attempted but is blocked, commonly because the provider number is already registered to route somewhere else. Results may be going elsewhere, so this one is worth acting on. |
If a lab declines the request, we'll let you know. Usually it means something in your details doesn't match what the lab holds on file, and either you or our team can contact them to sort it out.
You can also request to stop routing at an individual lab without affecting the others. We handle the cancellation with the lab from there.
Every Medicare order also tells you where its results are set to route, and flags any labs still being set up.
Troubleshooting
I've finished setup but I can't see the Medicare option.
Work through these in order:
Hard refresh your browser. The Medicare option may not appear until the page reloads properly. Cmd + Shift + R on a Mac, Ctrl + Shift + R on Windows. This is the fix most of the time.
Check your role. The Medicare option is hidden unless your role has the "Order with Medicare provider number" capability. Check it under Settings → Roles, or ask an owner to. This is the most common cause once a refresh hasn't helped.
Check your provider number is saved for this organisation, under Personal settings → Provider Numbers. If the organisation isn't listed there at all, your provider number hasn't been added yet — add it under Settings → Result routing → Practitioners if you're an owner or administrator, or ask one to.
Check your signature is applied to this organisation, under Personal settings → Provider Numbers. A provider number without an applied signature isn't enough to order.
If you've done all four and it's still not showing, get in touch and we'll take a look.
I'm in the right organisation, aren't I?
If you belong to more than one organisation, check which one you're in via the profile icon in the top right. Provider details are per organisation, so being set up in one doesn't set you up in another.