Cloud vs On-Premise Practice Management Software

Cloud vs On-Premise Practice Management Software

July 8, 2026

Choosing the right practice management software involves more than comparing features like appointments, clinical records, billing and integrations. One of the most important decisions is understanding how the software is built, accessed and maintained.

Practice management systems generally fall into two categories: on-premise software, managed by the practice or its IT provider, and cloud-native software, designed to operate through secure online infrastructure.

This article compares cloud and on-premise practice management software, covering infrastructure, costs, security, telehealth capabilities and the key considerations when choosing the right solution for your practice.

What is the difference between cloud and on-premise practice management software?

On-premise practice management software is installed on servers located within the practice or managed by an external IT provider. The practice is responsible for maintaining the technology behind the system, including hardware, backups, updates, security and troubleshooting.

Cloud practice management software enables authorised users to access patient information securely from anywhere, making it easier to support multi-site teams, telehealth services, electronic prescribing workflows, and hybrid models of care.

The difference is more than simply where data is stored. It impacts how easily a practice can scale, support remote work, introduce new technology and manage the day-to-day responsibilities of running a system.

Some traditional practice management systems were originally built for local servers and later adapted for cloud access. Cloud-native platforms, such as MediRecords, are designed around cloud technology from the beginning, allowing practices to benefit from infrastructure built specifically for secure online access.

Cloud practice management software vs on-premise software comparison

Feature Cloud practice management software On-premise practice management software
Infrastructure costs
lower upfront hardware requirements
Requires investment in local servers and hardware
Server maintenance
Managed by the software provider
Managed by the practice or IT provider
Access
Secure access from anywhere
Usually limited to locations with local infrastructure
Software updates
Delivered automatically
Often requires manual installation
Scaling
Easier to add additional users, providers and locations
May require additional hardware and configuration
Telehealth support
Designed to support connected, remote workflows
May require additional setup and integrations
IT requirements
Less reliance on internal IT expertise
Greater responsibility for managing technology

Read more: Practice servers costing more than you realise →

The true cost of practice management software

When comparing software options, it is easy to focus only on subscription fees or licence costs. However, the true cost of a system includes the technology, time and resources required to keep it running.

On-premise systems often require additional investment in areas such as:

  • Server hardware
  • Operating system and database licences
  • IT support
  • Backups and recovery processes
  • Cybersecurity management
  • Hardware replacement

These costs can add up over time and are not always considered when practices first compare software options. Based on a five-year cost comparison, moving to cloud practice management software, such as MediRecords, could save organisations up to $216,900 (approximately $43,380 annually), representing a 64% reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO) compared with an on-premise system.

For smaller practices, these additional responsibilities can create unnecessary complexity and cost. Whether you’re a GP practice, specialist clinic or allied health practice, a cloud-based solution allows you to get started quickly without purchasing servers, managing infrastructure or coordinating ongoing IT support.

Cloud practice management software reduces many of these barriers by providing access to the system through a secure online environment, helping practices focus on delivering care rather than managing technology.

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Is cloud practice management software secure?

Security is one of the most common considerations when choosing cloud-based software.

A common misconception is that storing data on a local server automatically provides greater protection. In reality, security depends on how systems are designed, maintained and monitored.

Australian healthcare practices must protect personal and health information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 and guidance from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). Cloud-native practice management software supports these requirements through secure infrastructure, controlled access, regular updates and ongoing monitoring managed by specialist technology teams.

With on-premise systems, practices are responsible for security updates, backups, access controls and disaster recovery. Cloud-native healthcare software allows these responsibilities to be managed by specialist technology teams, helping practices maintain strong security processes without requiring extensive internal IT knowledge.

This gives practice owners greater peace of mind, knowing critical infrastructure and security are managed by specialist technology teams.

Supporting modern healthcare workflows

Healthcare is becoming increasingly connected, with clinicians working across multiple locations and patients expecting more flexible care options.

Cloud practice management software enables authorised users to access patient information securely from anywhere, making it easier to support multi-site teams, telehealth services and hybrid models of care.

See how healthcare organisations are using cloud technology to support flexible care delivery, with examples from our customer case studies.

Benefits of cloud practice management software for growing practices

Whether you’re starting a new practice or expanding an existing one, cloud practice management software makes it easier to grow without investing in servers or complex infrastructure. Solo practitioners can get started faster with lower upfront costs, while larger practices can easily add users, providers and locations as they expand.

This allows practices to adopt connected tools such as patient communication, online bookings and other digital health capabilities without the complexity of managing additional local infrastructure.

Ready to move your practice to the cloud?

MediRecords is cloud-native practice management software designed for Australian healthcare practices, bringing appointments, clinical records, ePrescribing, billing, telehealth and patient communication ( via Engage) together in one connected platform.

Whether you’re a solo practitioner starting a new practice or a growing organisation looking to simplify operations, MediRecords provides the flexibility, security and scalability to support the way modern healthcare teams work. Our data migration process helps practices transition smoothly from their existing system, making the move to MediRecords simple and supported. Learn more about our data migration process here. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is cloud practice management software?

Cloud practice management software is hosted online rather than installed on local servers. It allows healthcare practices to securely access appointments, clinical records, billing and other workflows while the software provider manages infrastructure, updates and maintenance.

Cloud practice management software is hosted online and managed by the software provider, while on-premise software is installed on local servers managed by the practice or its IT provider. The main differences include infrastructure costs, maintenance responsibilities, accessibility and scalability.

Yes, cloud practice management software can provide strong security when built and managed correctly. Cloud providers typically manage infrastructure, security updates, monitoring and backups, reducing the technology burden on practices.

Yes. Cloud-based practice management software supports connected healthcare workflows by enabling secure access to patient information, digital communication tools and telehealth services from different locations.

Yes. Cloud software can be a practical option for solo practitioners because it reduces upfront technology costs and removes the need to purchase servers or manage complex IT infrastructure when starting a practice.

No. One of the key benefits of cloud practice management software is that the provider manages much of the underlying technology, including hosting, updates and infrastructure. This allows practice owners and GPs to focus on running their practice rather than managing IT systems.

The cost of cloud practice management software depends on factors such as practice size, users, features and requirements. When comparing options, practices should consider the total cost of ownership, including hardware, maintenance, IT support and upgrades. Access our online pricing calculator here. 

Cloud practice management software can typically be implemented faster than on-premise systems because practices do not need to purchase or configure servers and supporting infrastructure before getting started.

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Changes to the upcoming Medicare Assignment of Benefit rules

Changes to the upcoming Medicare Assignment of Benefit rules

June 19, 2026

On 18 June, after sustained advocacy from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the Federal Government softened the Medicare Assignment of Benefit changes due to start on 1 July.

What the announcement changes

  • Verbal consent available for a 12 month period from 1 July.
  • Enduring assignment brought forward for MyMedicare registered patients, aged care residents, and patients attending Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHO)
  • Enduring assignment for ACCHO patients can be held across more than one site.
  • Activity begins only once the regulatory changes are complete, and starts with education rather than enforcement.
  • A 12 month transition period has been introduced with a commitment to reduce the administrative load on practices and patients.

The requirement underneath has not gone away

The concessions give practices room to move, yet they sit around the obligation rather than removing it. Consent still has to be captured at the point of claiming, recorded against the claim, and held for two years for whenever a patient or an auditor asks for it. That work happens every day. The only open question is whether the software does it or the front desk does.

This matters because the burden the College fought to reduce is, in practice, an administrative one. When software does not absorb a change, the practice absorbs the labour, and the RACGP 2025 Health of the Nation report found 70% of GPs are already concerned about their administrative workload. A change handled by hand lands straight on top of that.

Cloud-native software removes the burden, not just softens it

The deciding factor is how updates reach the system. Legacy software sits on a server in the practice, so each rule change arrives as a release to wait for, install, and test before it can be relied on. Cloud-native software is updated continuously, so the Medicare Assignment of Benefit changes can be built into the workflow ahead of the deadline and switched on for everyone at once, with no server visit and no version left languishing in a back room.

That is the difference between softening the burden and never carrying it. MediRecords is cloud-native, and the 1 July requirements are already built into the billing workflow, so digital consent is captured at the point of claiming and retained automatically for two years. When the rules shift, there is nothing for the practice to install and nothing to rework.

This is just one deadline, and there will be others. The figure worth weighing is not this month’s licence fee but what every future change will cost in hours, in risk, and in rejected claims. On a legacy system that bill keeps arriving, but on a platform built to update itself, it does not.

How we are supporting MediRecords customers

For practices already on MediRecords, the updated Assignment of Benefit tools will be available in the platform on 1 July, ready to use from day one. With the 12 month transition period in place, customers have time to get comfortable with the new workflow well before compliance begins. 

As more detail of the Medicare Assignment of Benefit changes emerges, we will keep updating the platform to match, so the work of staying compliant stays with us rather than landing on your front desk.

See it for yourself before 1 July.

The clearest way to judge whether a system is ready for the Medicare Assignment of Benefit changes is to watch one that already is.

For an obligation-free MediRecords demo, simply reach out to our friendly team via the form below. 

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Assignment of Benefit changes: What it means for practices

Assignment of Benefit changes: What it means for practices

June 9, 2026

Healthcare in Australia is becoming increasingly digital, but many administrative processes have struggled to keep pace. Behind the scenes of every consultation sits a system that relies heavily on trust. Patients expect their information to be handled securely and their Medicare billing to be managed correctly.

From 1 July 2026, this system is being updated. Changes to the Medicare Assignment of Benefits (AoB) process will reshape how bulk billing consent is captured and stored in practices. While framed as a Medicare compliance update, the AoB changes also signal a broader shift toward more transparent, consistent, and digitally enabled healthcare administration in Australia.

For many practices, the Medicare AoB changes 2026 will feel like another layer of administration at first. But beneath that sits a clear path away from paper-based workflows and toward simpler, digital consent processes.

What are the Medicare Assignment of Benefits (AoB) changes?

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (DoHDA) is modernising Medicare billing for bulk billed and simplified billing services through amendments to the Health Insurance Act 1973. At its core, bulk billing still requires patient agreement to assign their Medicare benefit to the provider, with that benefit treated as full payment for the service.

The Assignment of Benefits (AoB) process sets out how this consent is captured. From July 2026, updated Medicare AoB requirements will change how bulk billing consent is documented, stored, and verified.

Key changes from July 2026 include:

  • Verbal consent will no longer be accepted, including for telehealth services.
  • Consent can be given before or after a service, but must be in place before a Medicare claim is submitted.
  • Approved or prescribed forms will no longer be required if all mandatory information is included.
  • Practitioner signatures will no longer be required.
  • Patient or authorised representative consent must be identifiable and electronically verifiable.
  • AoB records must be retained for at least two years and provided to patients on request.

Why Medicare is moving beyond paper consent

For years, consent for bulk billed Medicare services has been managed through paper-based forms and manual administrative processes. While these approaches have been long established, they are increasingly being complemented by more efficient digital workflows.

As healthcare delivery becomes more digitally enabled, paper-based processes can add avoidable steps such as printing, scanning, filing, and physical storage. They may also make it more difficult to consistently access or verify consent records when required.

The Medicare AoB changes aim to bring consent processes in line with modern digital health standards. By improving how consent is recorded and stored, the updates support clearer documentation, stronger governance, and more reliable access to records across the system.

What this means for your practice

For practices, the Medicare AoB changes will require planning, including updates to systems, workflows, and staff training to support consistent and compliant consent capture.

While this creates short-term adjustment, it also presents an opportunity to improve how consent is managed. Embedding consent into clinical systems can reduce duplication, streamline workflows, and create a more consistent Medicare billing process.

Consent is a routine part of every patient interaction, but paper-based systems add multiple manual steps that accumulate over time. Digital workflows help reduce this burden, making records easier to capture, access, and manage for compliance and audit purposes.

Practices will also need to ensure consent remains accessible for all patients, including those less confident with digital tools or who prefer non-digital options.

These implementation challenges have been noted by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), particularly around administrative burden and the need for clear guidance during transition. While some adjustment is expected, the changes support a longer-term shift toward more efficient and consistent processes across general practice.

What patients can expect

From a patient perspective, the Medicare AoB changes are primarily centred on improved transparency, clarity, and accessibility of consent.

Digital and standardised consent processes are intended to provide clearer records of what patients have agreed to, and when consent was given. This reduces reliance on paper-based forms and improves the ease with which information can be accessed when needed.

In practice, patients are likely to experience a more consistent and streamlined consent process across providers, particularly as digital systems become more integrated into everyday care delivery.

At the same time, maintaining flexible and accessible non-digital pathways will remain an important part of ensuring the system remains inclusive and patient-centred.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an Assignment of Benefit (AoB)?

An Assignment of Benefit (AoB) is the process where a patient agrees to assign their Medicare benefit directly to a healthcare provider, allowing the provider to receive the Medicare rebate as full payment for a bulk billed service. This agreement confirms the patient’s consent for the provider to bill Medicare on their behalf instead of the patient paying upfront and claiming a rebate themselves.

From 1 July 2026, the Medicare Assignment of Benefit (AoB) changes update how patient consent for bulk billed services is captured and recorded. Verbal consent will no longer be accepted, and consent must be clearly documented before a Medicare claim is submitted. Practitioner signatures will no longer be required, approved forms are no longer mandatory if required information is included, and records must be retained for at least two years with copies provided to patients on request.

The updated Medicare Assignment of Benefits requirements take effect from 1 July 2026.

The changes do not alter the bulk billing process itself. Instead, they focus on how patient consent for bulk billed services is obtained, recorded, and stored, with greater emphasis on clear written or electronic documentation.

The changes are designed to modernise consent management, reduce reliance on paper-based processes, improve record keeping, and align Medicare administration with contemporary digital healthcare practices.

Practices should review their current consent processes, assess whether their clinical and practice management systems support compliant consent capture, update workflows where needed, and ensure staff understand the new requirements before 1 July 2026. 

We have built the updated AoB requirements directly into our customer’s existing invoicing workflow, so the process will feel familiar. To learn more, visit our Knowledge Base article, here. 

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1.9 million Australians have a new GP. It isn’t you.

1.9 million Australians have a new GP. It isn’t you.

May 15, 2026

In the first half of 2024, an estimated 1.9 million Australian adults asked ChatGPT a health question.

That number comes from a nationally representative survey published in the Medical Journal of Australia in March 2025. It is what 9.9% of a 2,034-person sample reported they had actually done in the six months prior. Roughly the population of Adelaide, walking past their GP and asking a chatbot first.

The survey was conducted in mid-2024. By now, that number is almost certainly higher.

The story underlying the data is about what patients do when the system is too slow or too difficult to navigate, and what it means for the future of AI in general practice.

What the data on patients using ChatGPT shows

The 9.9% headline gets cited everywhere, but it’s the patterns underneath that tell the real story. ChatGPT use was higher, not lower, among Australians with limited or marginal health literacy.

Among users, 18.4% had limited or marginal health literacy. Among non-users, the figure was 9.4%. The narrative that AI is a tool for the digitally-fluent does not hold up under the data.

People are reaching for it when they find the formal system too hard or too expensive to navigate.

Use was also substantially higher among Australians born in non-English speaking countries (29.2% of users, against 18.4% of the broader sample). Among people who speak a language other than English at home, 38.0% had used ChatGPT for a health question, compared with 24.2% of the sample overall. ChatGPT is functioning as a translation layer for cohorts the system has historically served poorly.

The most concerning part is what people are using it for.

61% of users asked at least one higher-risk question. That category includes asking what symptoms mean, asking what to do about a specific health issue, asking whether they should see a doctor, and asking ChatGPT to interpret blood test or imaging results. These are questions that, historically, would go to a clinician.​

Trust in the responses sat at a moderate 3.1 out of 5. Patients are using ChatGPT knowingly, with calibrated expectations, and they are doing it anyway.

The third person in your consult room

The patient sitting in front of a GP today may have already asked an AI what their symptoms might mean, and what they should do about them. They may have a translated explanation of their last blood test pulled up on their phone. They may have arrived with a list of follow-up questions seeded by a chatbot during the wait.

The interaction looks different from a Google search, which points people to references and leaves them to their own devices, without offering an opinion or any personalisation. ChatGPT asks follow-up questions, holds context across a thread, and produces something that feels like advice rather than search results. Patients arrive at the consult partially informed and looking for validation or correction.

Clinicians are already grappling with this shift, and the instinct for some will be to push back. Don’t believe what ChatGPT tells you. It gets things wrong.

That instinct is understandable. Early models did get things wrong, sometimes in ways that made the news… but it misreads the moment. The patient using ChatGPT to translate a pathology report into plain English is looking to participate in their own care.

The choice that matters is what the practice does with that.

What AI in general practice means for the tech stack​

If patients are using AI to access and contextualise their healthcare, and the data says they are, that has implications beyond the consult room. It changes what a modern practice looks like. It changes which tools belong in the workflow. And it raises a question most practice owners haven’t yet sat down to answer.

What does our technology stack need to do for our patients, not just for us?

 The technology already exists. AI scribes, patient-facing explainers, secure ways to bring AI into the clinical workflow rather than around it. None of this is theoretical. The hard part is choosing what fits a specific practice without being dragged into a wholesale platform change every time the market produces something new.

That is a harder problem than it looks, and it sits on top of the workforce pressures already documented in the RACGP’s Health of the Nation 2025 report. It is not one solo GPs or stretched practice managers should be expected to solve alone.

The conversation worth having

This is part of what’s on the agenda for Evolution or Extinction of the GP Landscape, a session at the Digital Health Festival on 20 May featuring our Chief Product Officer, Jayne Thompson and Dr Max Mollenkopf. 

If you’ll be at the festival, come along. If not, watch this space.

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Re-thinking general practice beyond the clinic walls

Re-thinking general practice beyond the clinic walls

April 27, 2026

by Dr Gaveen Jayarajan

This article was originally published by GPRA Futures, a dedicated showcase of future thinkers, provocateurs, and healthcare innovations from visionary start-ups to established developers.

Can you please give a brief overview of your career to date, including qualifications and career pathway?

I graduated from The University of Melbourne in 2003 then worked in public and private hospitals as a resident and locum doctor for 4 years before starting my GP training, which I finished in 2010. I then worked full-time in several GP clinics till 2017, after which I moved to focus on full-time work in aged care, only visiting residential aged care facilities as part of a mobile GP practice. In 2022 I started my own solo mobile GP practice, Doctors in Aged Care, and continue this work today.

This year we became one of the first AGPAL-accredited mobile GP practices in Australia, accredited under the RACGP 5th Standards as a non-traditional practice without a physical premises/consulting rooms.

Doctors in Aged Care also has a dedicated Facebook Group with over 2700 doctor members where peer-to-peer learning and discussion occurs about all things related to aged care from administration, Medicare, clinical and organisational aspects.

What is the product you are using?

I use MediRecords as my clinical and practice management software as it gives me much greater reliability and speed working in mobile settings and without relying on remote access connections to access server-based software. It also provides much greater security along with automatic backups and ensures my IT costs are kept to a minimum by avoiding the need to pay for expensive third party IT service providers and maintaining hardware such as servers.

I also use Snapforms for various online forms that integrate directly into MediRecords and can auto-populate fields — for example, using an online new patient registration form that automatically creates a new patient file in MediRecords with certain demographic fields populated and a copy of the form automatically uploaded to the Correspondence tab.

I don’t use any AI software at present, but I do use a text shortcut software called Phrase Express to speed up my note-taking significantly.

What do you see as some of the enablers and barriers to health innovation in primary care in Australia?

Enablers include the current economic climate with rising costs across the board meaning we need to find new ways of doing things in order to be leaner, more efficient and thus more financially sustainable. I think there is openness to such innovation amongst the GP community.

Barriers include current operating models where GPs are operating their own independent medical practices within a common physical premises with the Practice Owner providing administrative and support services. Owners somehow need to cater to the needs of these individual GPs running their own practices and be able to customise their offering to each GP without increasing their costs too much.

A significant change — like a change of practice software — is harder to achieve in this situation as buy-in from many independent doctors is needed, who won’t necessarily see any direct financial benefit if their services fees remain the same and may be resistant to alterations to their usual workflows.

What do you think the future of general practice looks like?

I think the future of general practice will need to move towards one that is underpinned by modern cloud-based software that is more secure, scalable and interoperable. One where face-to-face visits are complemented by phone and video consultations as well as asynchronous communications via cloud-based patient portals, where patients have more access and visibility over their own patient health records.

It will incorporate new operating models such as the use of more virtual or remote administrative and support staff to reduce operating costs and improve financial sustainability. GPs must expand their service offerings and become more accessible to counter the effects of the Telehealth/Online-only providers that are providing more convenience to patients, but without the continuity of care that patients should expect.

Why is it important GPs are involved in health innovation/new technology design?

GPs should be involved in the early stages so the products built are fit for purpose and designed with fewer iterations and ultimately lesser time and cost. Incorrectly designed software will get very little traction amongst GPs, who will not have the time to see patients and adjust to this with work-arounds.

What would you say to early career doctors about general practice/primary healthcare?

Early career doctors should ensure they get the broadest exposure to General Practice through the different medical centres they work in, and later on consider sub-specialisation into a niche area that suits their interests and abilities and meets their financial and lifestyle objectives and family needs.

Let the work fit into your life, not the other way round!

This article was originally published by GPRA Futures, a dedicated showcase of future thinkers, provocateurs, and healthcare innovations from visionary start-ups to established developers.

Thinking of Starting a new clinic?

Opening a medical practice involves more than finding a location and hiring staff. From Medicare compliance to digital health registrations, there are many steps to get right. We’ve simplified the process into a practical checklist to help you launch a modern, compliant clinic with confidence.

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HepLink Launches Using MediRecords to Expand Hepatitis C Care

HepLink Launches Using MediRecords to Expand Hepatitis C Care

March 30, 2026

Media Release 

Hepatitis Australia has launched a new national telehealth service designed to deliver unprecedented access to hepatitis C testing and treatment, helping Australia move closer to eliminating hepatitis C as a public health threat.

The service forms part of HepLink, the national hepatitis information and linkage service, and allows people anywhere in Australia to connect with trained nurses, streamlined care pathways, and rapid access to treatment via telephone and virtual care.

Powered by MediRecords’ secure cloud technology and the Coviu telehealth platform, HepLink enables Australians to receive testing guidance, arrange blood tests, access clinical consultations and, where appropriate, receive prescriptions for curative hepatitis C treatment, without needing to attend an in-person appointment.

Hepatitis Australia CEO Lucy Clynes said the new service builds on the extraordinary progress Australia has made since hepatitis C cures were made widely available through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in 2016.

“More than 100,000 Australians have now accessed treatment and almost 100,000 have been cured of hepatitis C. That is one of the most significant public health achievements in a generation. 

But around 63,000 Australians are still living with hepatitis C and many are unaware they have it or are not currently connected to care. HepLink helps close that gap by making testing, treatment and expert support easier to access from anywhere in the country.”

 Lucy Clynes, Hepatitis Australia CEO

Digitally enabled care pathway

The HepLink telehealth service is supported by secure cloud-based clinical technology from MediRecords and its Engage patient portal, integrated with the Coviu telehealth platform and AI Scribe technology, enabling an end-to-end digital care pathway for patients.

Through the system, nurses and clinicians can securely manage patient records, share information and education materials, arrange testing, conduct telehealth consultations and issue ePrescriptions where appropriate.

This digitally enabled workflow allows people to move from their first enquiry to treatment initiation through a streamlined virtual care model — removing barriers for those who may struggle to access traditional health services.

Alongside Canada, Australia is now among the only countries to offer a nationwide telehealth service of this kind.

HepLink also supports general practitioners who may be unfamiliar with hepatitis C treatment, offering guidance and referral pathways to ensure patients are not left untreated.

MediRecords CEO Matthew Galetto said digital health platforms play a critical role in expanding access to care for people who may otherwise fall through the cracks.

“Digital care models are essential to reaching patients who may not present through traditional healthcare pathways,” Mr Galetto said.

“By supporting HepLink with secure cloud infrastructure and integrated telehealth capability, we’re helping enable a scalable national approach to hepatitis C care.”

 Matthew Galetto, MediRecords Founder and CEO 

Supporting Australia’s elimination goal

Australia has made major progress toward eliminating hepatitis C since the introduction of direct-acting antiviral treatments in 2016.

Since then:

  • The number of Australians living with chronic hepatitis C has fallen by more than 60 per cent
  • Deaths among people living with hepatitis C have declined significantly
  • Almost half of treatments are now prescribed in primary care settings, improving access across the country.

However, treatment rates have slowed in recent years as remaining patients are harder to reach.

HepLink is designed to reconnect those individuals with care by providing confidential, easy-to-access support and clinical guidance.

Ms Clynes said initiatives like HepLink will be essential if Australia is to achieve its goal of eliminating hepatitis C.

“We now have the tools to cure hepatitis C quickly and safely,” she said.

“The challenge is ensuring people know about the cure and can access care when they need it. HepLink helps ensure no one misses the opportunity to be tested and treated.”

How to access HepLink

Anyone in Australia can access the HepLink service by calling 1800 437 222 or visiting www.heplink.au.

The service provides:

Information about hepatitis C testing

Support to arrange blood tests

Virtual clinical consultations where required

Access to prescriptions for curative treatment

HepLink is the national hepatitis information and linkage service operated by Hepatitis Australia in partnership with community hepatitis organisations nationally. HepLink is funded by the Australian Government Centre for Disease Control.  

The HepLink telehealth service is made possible through a community grant from Gilead Sciences Australia.  

MediRecords and Coviu are proud to support this vital healthcare initiative.

Media Enquiries

Hepatitis Australia: Darren Rodrigo, 0414 783 405 

MediRecords: Matthew Galetto, CEO, [email protected], 0407 374 910

Coviu: Diana Pitts, CEO, [email protected], 02 7908 1346

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Why choosing a Practice Management System shouldn’t be a marriage for life

Why choosing a Practice Management System shouldn’t be a marriage for life - but neither should it be married at first sight

March 10, 2026

by Tim Pegler

Choosing a Practice Management System (PMS) is not a decision to take lightly.

Like a significant other, a PMS needs to be dependable, adaptable, and easy to spend time with. It should be open to growth, including making new connections. It should not be stuck in the past.

However, for time-poor clinicians their clinical software is all too often a set and forget decision. It’s the equivalent of ‘til death do us part’ (or the servers need replacing). Until then, inertia wins the day.

Fortunately, Australian healthcare is at a crossroads. There’s never been a better time to review technology partnerships, following Federal Government confirmation the future of healthcare is cloud-first and FHIR-enabled.

This doesn’t mean it’s time for a software swingers party or a married at first glance impulse buy. Migrating to a new Practice Management System can be complicated. Here are six things to consider carefully if you’re ready to reconsider your pairing:

1. Technology is evolving. Your PMS needs to keep pace

The Federal Government preference for cloud-hosted technology with FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) connectivity is pragmatic and based on worldwide trends. There are rising expectations for data to be shared from Primary (e.g. GP) to Tertiary (e.g. hospital) care organisations in real time because communication silos create risk. Consumers increasingly expect access to their data – and their doctors – wherever they are. Your technology needs to support this with secure integration to government systems. Ask your vendors: 

  • What security certifications do they have? 
  • Are they conformant with government regulations for prescribing safely? 
  • How often do they release product updates and how easy are these to install? 
  • What’s on their roadmap?

2. Scalability is not negotiable

Growth looks different for every organisation. You might: 

  • Add multidisciplinary teams for holistic, shared care 
  • Expand to multiple sites 
  • Provide a combination of face to face and telehealth care 

A scalable PMS accommodates growth rather than impeding it. This is why cloud systems have become the modern standard; they scale effortlessly, securely, and cost effectively. 

3. Remote workforces are here to stay

The pandemic changed healthcare forever, resulting in workforce casualisation, proliferation of virtual care services, and teams working from anywhere with Internet access. Your preferred PMS needs to be limber enough to support: 

  • Telehealth consultations 
  • Distributed administrative teams 
  • After hours clinical care 
  • Offsite reporting, billing, and triage 
  • Multilocation collaboration 

If your workers are grinding away via legacy remote desktop systems, you’re likely to be losing time, money and team morale.  

4. API connectivity is essential 

API and FHIR interoperability enable innovation. Look for a PMS technology partner with open, well documented APIs ensuring secure connection with: 

  • AI-powered tools to enhance efficiency 
  • Digital front doors 
  • Patient engagement portals 
  • Medication dispensing and delivery systems 
  • And much more. 

A PMS that resists integrations is holding your organisation back. (To read about MediRecords’ connectivity, check out Connect by MediRecords – Connected Health Care.)

5. Look at the big picture on budget 

A wedding costs more than a dress, rings, catering and flowers. Factor in photography, suits, vehicle and venue hire, celebrants, music, and so much more. Licence fees for a server-based or hybrid PMS may be attractively low, but you need to budget for desktop downtime and IT support for managing your back-ups, software updates and security patches, not to mention the hardware, building and utilities expenses for owning, running and cooling servers. A server is a short-term investment; you’re committing to $40k or more, each time you replace the hardware. You also need to dispose of it securely and, ideally, sustainably. 

Cloud PMS systems mean you can ghost server issues, swipe left on IT contractors and let your technology partner automate software management for you. 

6. Where do you see yourself in a decade? 

People change. So does the healthcare sector. Hospital-, aged-, and palliative care will increasingly be delivered at home, to maximise patient comfort and convenience, and minimise costs. Can your nursing teams deliver patient care wherever they need? 

Actively seek PMS software with the flexibility to satiate new needs as they arise.  

If it’s not marriage for life, what is it?

Think of your PMS as a long-term partnership, built on performance, adaptability, and trust. You shouldn’t feel trapped by it. You shouldn’t choose it impulsively. You should feel confident it’s the right pairing for today and tomorrow. If it’s cloud-based, scalable, FHIR-enabled, and API-driven, that’s a lot of green flags. 

Moving forward

If you’re considering opening a new business, MediRecords’ Complete Medical Practice Startup Blueprint provides a comprehensive checklist on things to work through. 

If your existing business is looking for a new technology partner, please book a call via [email protected] so we can discuss your requirements. 

Thinking of Starting a new clinic?

Opening a medical practice involves more than finding a location and hiring staff. From Medicare compliance to digital health registrations, there are many steps to get right. We’ve simplified the process into a practical checklist to help you launch a modern, compliant clinic with confidence.

Download the checklist

Further reading

What to consider when selecting a practice management system? 

Eight reasons to embrace cloud technology in healthcare

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Predictions and peer pressure in the AI playground​

Predictions and peer pressure in the AI playground

January 21, 2026

by Tim Pegler

For a few years now I’ve dusted off my crystal ball each January, gazed into its misty depths, and asked, ‘What will change in digital health in the 12 months ahead?’

This year it felt pointless asking as all the omens point to obvious answers. I didn’t need to be psychic to predict AI and cyber security would dominate developments in healthcare in 2026.

And then the ground shifted, possibly seismically. AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic formally launched healthcare initiatives and the aftershocks have begun. So, hot on the heels of the announcements, let’s look at what the big five AI platforms are doing in health:

OpenAI’s ChatGPT

Watch how your friends and family get their health information now. If they’ve dumped Dr Google in favour of a ChatGP(T), they’re part of a mass migration. It’s estimated that 5% to 25% of ChatGPT searches now relate to healthcare, so it’s no surprise OpenAI is cementing its role in health. 

OpenAI’s January 8 announcement said ChatGPT Health will be a consumer-facing information and assistance tool where you can upload results and ask questions, draft clinical documents, review research and summarise data. In the US, personal health records can be connected via middleware, to analyse progress. Major training tools, like MyFitnessPal and Peloton, are looking to integrate with ChatGPT. 

For large healthcare organisations, ChatGPT for Healthcare promises a HIPAA-ready workspace, focused on administrative efficiency. It can be integrated with an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) to boost automation, clinical decision support and planning. Major hospitals are already proceeding to pilot implementations. 

ChatGPT Health is available to a limited user group in Australia, with broader access likely from next month. 

Anthropic’s Claude

Claude for Healthcare launched on January 11 with beta products for enterprise and consumers. At present, these are limited to US subscribers, with no timeline for entering the Australian market. On the consumer side, Apple and Android integrations will enable sharing of health histories, results, and wearable device data with Claude. Claude says this will enable detection of patterns, “more productive conversations with doctors” and humans who are better informed about their health. 

At enterprise level, Claude is also HIPAA-ready and aligning with major databases such as PubMed, the international Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) and the US system detailing medical billing codes. 

Microsoft’s Copilot

Microsoft announced its health AI push early and has the advantages of being pre-installed in many computers. Copilot for Health identifies as a consumer-friendly ‘AI Companion’ that draws on medical journals, especially Harvard Medical School resources. It can provide symptom and wellness information and point you toward nearby health services, (hopefully with available appointments). 

At EMR level, Microsoft’s play is through Dragon Copilot for medical professionals (no known Australian release date) and enterprise documentation tools under the Microsoft for Healthcare banner. 

Google’s Gemini

Google has research tools and enterprise cloud platforms in its armoury. The former includes Med-Gemini, which can assist with medical exam preparation, clinical reasoning and patient file analysis, and MedGemma which is used with diagnostic imaging, medical devices and other clinical documents. Finally, Personal Health LLM (looks like the marketing team haven’t got to this one yet) will coach consumers based on data from devices like Fitbit. 

At enterprise level, Google has Vertex AI Search for Healthcare in EHR systems and MedLM for documentation, scribing and clinical coding. Hospitals using Google Workspace will likely use Google AI tools. 

Google’s Health Connect is also promoting FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standards to improve interoperability of health information sources. 

Beyond these initiatives, Google Health is a leader in deep dive medical research and drug development.  

Perplexity

The other big AI player, best known for its comprehensive referencing, hasn’t announced a formal healthcare move. Partnered with large research libraries like Wiley, Perplexity promises an “AI research and productivity layer” but lacks AI scribe features or options for EMR integration.

Peer pressure

With Claude, Copilot and Perplexity licensing respected sources of peer-reviewed research, it’s clear that attribution and credibility are invaluable to AI platforms. It’s also obvious everyone is nervous about being a global test case for inaccurate, dangerous, or deadly “hallucinated” data. The platforms all warn they are not diagnostic in nature; they ‘inform’ but cannot substitute for advice from qualified medical practitioners. And they can all make mistakes. 

In the interests of objectivity, I asked each of the five tools to discuss the pros and cons of their peers, versus themselves. The findings were remarkably consistent:  

  • Claude won plaudits for ethics, safety, privacy controls and clinical reasoning but was marked down for US-centric data and limited interoperability.
  • Gemini had the advantages of deep learning from Google search tools and medical research, along with software omnipresence.
  • ChatGPT has market maturity and mass usage, but this comes with a perceived higher risk of hallucination.
  • Copilot scored for being a handy administration and documentation tool embedded in hospitals. That was a back-handed compliment; for clinical reasoning, Claude and Gemini were the go-tos.
  • Perplexity was nominated as the best place for doctors to verify information and perhaps the least likely to hallucinate.

Dance partners

The other battleground is for data partners. Alliances with the developers of phones, wearables, health apps, medical devices, fitness and rehabilitation equipment, and clinical trials, will be critical. Primary care practice management systems might even come under the microscope. 

Doing it Down Under 

Australia is significantly smaller than the US and lagging on data interoperability, (despite the best efforts of FHIR-friendly vendors like MediRecords.) Just like we don’t see new features for Apple Watches for months or years after they’re released, the new AI platforms may face regulatory reviews and other hurdles Down Under. 

One thing is clear. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) will be watching to see if they stray into diagnostic device territory. 

And for those that are already fearful of AI, here’s a project to really get the heart racing. A pilot program in Utah, USA, has begun using AI for repeat prescriptions for specific medications. 

Ai Curious?

MediRecords Evolve is our growing suite of agentic AI tools designed to expand the clinical and admin capabilities of your practice, while saving time and minimising the risk of human error.

Reduce your workload today, and increase your capacity with every new release.

Learn more

Sources

  1. ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini and Perplexity 
  2. Becker’s Hospital Review: OpenAI launches suite of AI tools for hospitals, health systems
  3. Health Services Daily: ChatGPT Health rolls out in Australia
  4. Becker’s Hospital Review:AI begins renewing prescriptions in Utah
  5. Mobi Health News: OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health, partners with b.well
  6. Tech Crunch: Google removes AI Overviews for certain medical queries
  7. Becker’s Hospital Review: Anthropic rolls out Claude for Healthcare: 7 notes
  8. Becker’s Hospital Review: OpenAI acquires health data startup Torch for $60M
  9. Time Magazine: Is Giving ChatGPT Health Your Medical Records a Good Idea?
  10. Fierce Healthcare: OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT for Healthcare, a gen AI workspace for hospitals and clinics
  11. Becker’s Hospital Review: AI begins renewing prescriptions in Utah 
  12. IT News: From hype to value: The AI trends set to shape 2026
  13. Health Services Daily: Did ChatGPT just make big parts of our digital health strategy redundant?

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MediRecords Wrap-Up 2025
 
 

Wrapping up 2025

A message from our CEO & Founder

December 22, 2025

Matthew Galetto - CEO and Founder

Time to pause and reflect

As the festive season rolls around, it’s a good time to pause and reflect on what’s been a big year for MediRecords. First, a genuine thank you. To our customers who trust MediRecords in busy, high-pressure clinical settings every day. To our partners who continue to back us and build alongside us. And most importantly, to the MediRecords team. The effort and persistence this year has been outstanding. Much of the work wasn’t glamorous, but it mattered. 

Building momentum

2025 has been a year of delivery and execution. We stayed focused on getting the hard things done properly. Closing out complex initiatives. Strengthening the core of the platform. Improved workflow and customer specific use cases, improved performance, and quality across our products.

Many of these milestones have been shared throughout the year on our blog, from major product and analytics improvements, such as Engage & Clarity, to cloud innovation, payments, and the rollout of new AI-powered capabilities that are already helping teams work more efficiently.

A new era for cloud technology

We’re also seeing a clear shift across the health sector. Cloud-first is becoming the default. Cyber, AI and interoperability are no longer optional conversations, including at a government level. 

That direction aligns strongly with where MediRecords has been heading for some time. We’re built on a true cloud foundation, designed to interoperate, and focused on making the patient record more useful rather than more complex.

Expanding our platform with practical AI

This year we expanded our Care, Connect, and Engage strategy with the introduction of Evolve, bringing practical AI into clinical and operational workflows. 

Our focus has been simple: use intelligence where it genuinely helps. Cut down unnecessary steps. Highlight what matters. Help people make clearer decisions with less effort. We believe the patient system of record is the right place for AI to live, and we’re just getting started.

Looking ahead & thank you

Looking ahead, the health technology market is changing quickly, along with how care is being delivered to patients, and it’s an exciting time to be part of it. We’re looking forward to expanding our role in that shift, continuing to work closely with customers and partners, and building technology that is trusted, scalable, and grounded in real-world use.

From all of us at MediRecords, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and best wishes for a safe and well-earned break. Thank you for being part of the journey.

Warm regards, 

Matthew 

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Too many apps on the dancefloor: digital continuity, governance and productivity 101

Two doctors discuss a patient's file over a tablet device.

Too many apps on the dancefloor: digital continuity, governance and productivity 101

26 November 2025

Two doctors discuss a patient's file over a tablet device.

Do we try to sew together a mass of emerging apps to connect and refer up and downstream, or use agile platforms that can connect it all in one system?

Matthew Galetto - Founder and CEO MediRecords

This article was originally published by Health Services Daily on 11 November 2025

The federal government has drawn a line in the sand: since October 2025, pathology providers must upload reports to My Health Record by default, with diagnostic imaging following in February 2026. Medicare benefits are only payable when organisations comply.

That’s just the beginning.

The government is explicitly exploring ways to expand default sharing beyond pathology and diagnostic imaging to other types of key health information, including discharge summaries, specialist letters, and care plans.

It’s not a question of if GP consultations, specialist visits, and allied health services will face the same requirements. It’s when.

 And it’s not just about uploading data. Since 2023, clinical software that connects to My Health Record has been required to meet mandatory security conformance standards.

While the government ultimately stopped short of mandating full Essential Eight compliance (recognising that very few systems would have met the threshold), the direction is clear: minimum cybersecurity standards are coming as a prerequisite for exchanging information with government services, including Medicare.

If your systems can’t demonstrate baseline security resilience, you won’t be connecting to national infrastructure much longer.

A screenshot of the Sales Audit screen within the MediRecords software.

For organisations managing both internal health services and external community referral networks, this integration challenge isn’t theoretical. It’s the difference between being able to answer an auditor’s questions and hoping they don’t dig too deep and it’s a massive potential pivot to or away from productivity.

When audits expose the integration gap

The Australian National Audit Office’s recent audit of Defence health services put numbers to what many already suspected: poor integration between clinical and financial systems made it impossible to reliably track what services were delivered, by whom, or whether claims matched care.

Defence is far from unique.

The same pattern shows up across corporate health services, corrections health, employee assistance programs, and anywhere else an internal health service refers patients to external community providers.

What the audit exposed was that when you refer internally and deliver externally without a unified system, you lose the thread. You can’t track the referral pathway. You can’t validate service delivery. You can’t reconcile the claim back to the original clinical decision.

A specialist and surgeon discuss the details of a patient's referral over a clipboard.

When the referral chain breaks

A patient visits an internal health service. The GP refers to a community specialist. The specialist orders pathology and refers to allied health. Someone else handles the follow-up. Each provider bills separately, through separate systems.

By the time finance tries to reconcile it all, tracking the chain of referrals feels more like forensic investigation than accounting. Clinically coded data lives in one system. Community provider billing happens in another. Medicare bulk bills go through one channel, private providers through another, and DVA or other contracted arrangements follow their own logic entirely.

When something doesn’t add up (and it often doesn’t), you’re left hunting through emails, spreadsheets, and disparate databases trying to reverse-engineer what actually happened.

 For organisations with duty-of-care obligations, where you’re responsible for health outcomes even when care is delivered externally, that lack of visibility is a significant governance failure. But it’s one we’ve largely lived with because our systems haven’t been sophisticated enough to cope with the problem.

However, now that we can contemplate a system that doesn’t just connect these elements but in doing so also creates an audit trail, it’s not just governance people should be thinking about. It’s productivity.

How much money and workforce productivity will start to emerge in our healthcare system when we start properly joining up all the elements of referral, clinical record, booking and invoicing, in real time?

We are literally talking in the billions. Yet it’s something people haven’t largely even contemplated in the current digital transformation of our healthcare system … yet.

How it should work

If your internal health service already uses a platform that manages referrals, clinical documentation, billing, and compliance, extending that same platform to community providers creates an unbroken chain of accountability from initial consultation to final payment.

Internal service creates a referral. The system captures the clinical justification, authorised services, and any service limits. The community provider receives the referral, accesses the same system, sees the referral context, and documents their service delivery. Service is coded and billed. The system automatically validates that the service matches the referral authorisation. Finance reconciles in real-time. Because everything lives in one system, there’s nothing to reconcile manually.

Every action connects to the one before it. The audit trail is automatic. The organisation maintains visibility and governance over care delivered externally, without sacrificing provider autonomy.

But the system pay-off is in productivity of the provider and the patient. Literally millions of hours not wasted in trying to connect the dots on payments, invoicing and bookings.

The pay-off is for everyone but providers will need to be able to extend the system they use internally to their external provider network.

Some systems today are starting to claim they can do this. But most only offer elements of solving the problem.

A cloud-based e-referral system, for instance, is neat but it can’t seamlessly integrate to bookings and invoicing in a line to create a single audit trail and set of invoices. These are nice-to-have new elements but they are essentially modern versions of the old SMD systems.

Solving the referral-to-community problem

Forgive me here but I’m going to talk about the one system I’m involved with, MediRecords. I’m doing this because I know it so well, it provides a great example of what is achievable if you are able to extend your system seamlessly to external provider networks and, well, I’m selling it, obviously.

Surprisingly, given the seismic productivity gains on offer for both patients and providers, systems like MediRecords – essentially an FHIR-enabled cloud-based EMR with lots of good APIs – are, so far, few and far between in Australia.

For a long time the government has not really incentivised cloud-based connectivity in Australia with the result that many old server-bound integrations have been able persist a long time in the system.

Other cloud-based systems like MediRecords with longitudinal system connectivity capability do exist, but I’ll let you do that research.

What’s important is these new core cloud systems are agile in their ability to connect and share data in real time with other systems, which is auditable and which, because of the flexibility of connection, provides the ability for all elements of a single patient transaction to be captured and processed.

Where MediRecords is already deployed as the core system for internal health services, extending it to community providers means those providers gain access to the same platform, but with appropriate scope limits and data access controls.

A community GP sees only their own patients and referrals, but the referring organisation maintains oversight across the entire care pathway.

The platform handles referral management with structured referrals including clinical context, service authorisation, and validity periods. It manages multidisciplinary workflows with different claiming rules for GPs, specialists, allied health, pathology, and imaging. Real-time compliance happens automatically, validating services against referral authorisations and payor rules. And every referral, service, and claim comes with audit trails that prove clinical appropriateness.

For enterprise and community networks managing dozens of sites and hundreds of external providers, dashboards show where referrals are flowing, where services are getting stuck, and where revenue patterns don’t match clinical expectations.

Meeting regulatory standards

MediRecords supports FHIR and OntoServer standards, integrates with national infrastructure via secure messaging, and stores the structured data required for My Health Record uploads.

Under the hood, MediRecords is built with double-entry accounting, a general ledger, and full journal management. This provides the financial backbone that government finance departments and enterprise systems require.

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s Compliance Strategy 2025-30 makes it clear: data integrity includes cybersecurity.

MediRecords’ cloud-native architecture aligns clinical and financial assurance with enterprise-grade security. For organisations evaluating community provider networks, that means one less integration risk and one less compliance gap.

The trade-off: Integration v independence

When you’re managing thousands of services, including external referrals across hundreds of providers, manual review is almost impossible.

Some advanced providers, MediRecords being one of them, are exploring how artificial intelligence can automatically identify, link, and map services to item codes, validate claims against payor rules (whether government, insurer, or contract-based) and flag services that don’t match referral authorisations.

That means fewer manual audits, faster reconciliation, and better confidence that community providers are claiming appropriately. The result is a platform that doesn’t just capture data. It learns from patterns and helps organisations maintain governance without drowning in manual review.

What comes next

Health reform is heading in one direction: integration, data sharing, accountability and significant productivity gains, particularly in the area of workforce.

Organisations responsible for health outcomes are being asked to demonstrate traceability even when care is delivered externally and solve their productivity and workforce issues. That’s now just not feasible with legacy systems: when internal services and external providers use completely different platforms.

The path forward isn’t more integration layers, one-off cloud-based connection applications or complex data feeds. It’s system continuity.

Using the same platform internally and externally, so that clinical accountability, financial governance, and regulatory compliance flow naturally across organisational boundaries.

For organisations already using MediRecords internally, extending it to community providers isn’t just the path of least resistance. It’s the path of greatest assurance and productivity.

Connected care, credible claims, real compliance and generationally impactful productivity gains.

That’s what modern health governance and productivity looks like when care crosses organisational lines, which more and more these days it must if we are to manage a system rapidly moving to team based chronic care management.

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