The 20-minute heart check Medicare covers from 45

Medicare has covered a dedicated Heart Health Check since April 2019. It is a GP appointment of about 20 minutes for people who do not already have heart disease, and it ends with an estimate of the person's chance of having a heart attack or stroke in the next five years. Plenty of eligible people have not had one. In a Heart Foundation survey of almost 1,000 Australians aged 45 to 74, released for Heart Week in May 2024, 58% of eligible adults had not seen their GP for a Heart Health Check in the previous two years.

The total is growing. In September 2025 the Heart Foundation said Australia was approaching one million Medicare Heart Health Checks since the item was introduced. The same release reported why people put off GP visits about their heart. In its 2025 State of the Heart survey of more than 5,000 respondents, the most common reasons for missing or delaying a recent appointment were cost (42%), not treating it as a priority because they felt well (36%), and being too busy (29%).

Feeling well is the reason worth a second look, because the check is designed for people who feel fine. The Heart Foundation's own summary is that many Australians with a high chance of a heart attack or stroke are unaware of the risk.

Who can have one

The Heart Foundation gives three starting ages: 45 for most people, 35 for people living with diabetes, and 30 for First Nations peoples. The check is meant for people who do not already have heart disease.

The Medicare item behind it, item 699 on the Medicare Benefits Schedule, is written for patients aged 30 or over. The risk calculator GPs use is designed for people up to the age of 79. Healthdirect adds that Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people should have their individual risk factors screened from the age of 18.

What it costs

The Heart Foundation says Heart Health Checks are covered by Medicare and are free at practices that bulk bill the service. Not every practice does, so its advice is to ask the GP about costs before the appointment. The schedule allows the item to be claimed once per patient in any 12-month period.

What happens in the appointment

The Heart Foundation describes the check in four steps.

1. Discuss. The GP asks about smoking, diabetes, current medications, family health history, ethnic background and postcode. Healthdirect notes the questions may also cover lifestyle and mental health.
2. Check. Blood pressure is measured, and cholesterol and blood sugar levels are checked. Weight and waist circumference may be measured too, according to Healthdirect.
3. Assess. The results go into a clinically validated calculator that estimates the risk of a heart attack or stroke over the next five years.
4. Plan. The GP sets out a plan to lower that risk. It may include lifestyle changes, a referral to another health professional such as a dietitian, or medicines.

The Medicare schedule requires the consultation to last at least 20 minutes and to be provided by a GP, who may be assisted by a practice nurse. It covers taking a history, a basic physical examination that records blood pressure and cholesterol, starting any interventions or referrals, a management plan and preventive health advice.

The calculator is published at cvdcheck.org.au. The site was developed by the Heart Foundation in collaboration with the Australian Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance, with Australian Government funding, and it reflects the 2023 Australian guideline. Its inputs include age, sex, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol, diabetes status, use of cardiovascular medicines, postcode and any history of atrial fibrillation. People with diabetes are asked for some additional results.

What the result means

The result is a percentage: the estimated chance of a heart attack or stroke within five years. The calculator sorts it into three bands.

• Low risk: under 5%.
• Intermediate risk: 5% to under 10%.
• High risk: 10% or more.

A result of 10% is not a prediction about one person. It means that in a group of 100 people with the same age, sex and measurements, about 10 would be expected to have a heart attack or stroke over five years and about 90 would not. The number describes people who look like you on paper. Your GP then reads it alongside everything else they know about you.

What follows depends on the band. Healthdirect says a doctor may prescribe medicines to lower blood pressure or cholesterol, and may suggest changes such as healthy eating, more physical activity, stopping smoking and drinking less alcohol. It also gives the timing for a repeat assessment: within five years for people at low risk and within two years for people at intermediate risk. If a doctor thinks heart disease may already be present, further tests such as an electrocardiogram (ECG) can be arranged.

Why the mid-40s

The age threshold makes sense against national figures. In the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2022 National Health Survey, 4.3% of people aged 45 to 54 had heart, stroke and vascular disease. The figure was 9.0% at 55 to 64 and 14.3% at 65 to 74. Among people aged 75 and over it was 27.7%. Across all ages it was 5.2%, or about 1.3 million people. A check that begins at 45 sits just ahead of the steepest part of that curve.

How to book

Call your usual general practice and ask for a Heart Health Check by name, so that reception books the longer appointment and not a standard one. Ask on the same call whether the practice bulk bills the check, and whether it wants a blood test for cholesterol and blood sugar done before the day. People without a regular GP can find one through the Healthdirect Service Finder.

Two things are worth bringing. One is a list of current medicines. The other is whatever the family knows about heart attack or stroke in parents, brothers and sisters, including roughly how old they were at the time. The Heart Foundation's 2024 survey found that nearly half of Australians at risk of cardiovascular disease did not know their family history, so a phone call to a relative beforehand may be the most useful preparation of all.

A Heart Health Check is a planned appointment for people without symptoms. It is not the place to take new chest pain. Healthdirect's advice for sudden severe chest pain or difficulty breathing is to call triple zero (000) and ask for an ambulance.

For everyone else aged 45 and over who has not been assessed lately, the next step is a phone call to the practice.

Sources

1. Heart Foundation, Time to book a Heart Health Check?.
2. Australian Government, MBS Online, Item 699, Medicare Benefits Schedule.
3. Healthdirect, Should I be tested for heart disease?.
4. Australian CVD Risk Calculator (cvdcheck.org.au), Assessing and managing cardiovascular disease risk: 2023 Australian guideline and calculator.
5. Heart Foundation, New data shows half of Australians unaware of major risk factor for heart disease (media release, 6 May 2024).
6. Heart Foundation, World Heart Day 2025 (media release, 28 September 2025).
7. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Heart, stroke and vascular disease, 2022.