DVA Fee Schedule 2026: Every Discipline and What Changed on 1 July

Key Takeaways

• DVA published new fee schedules for 20 dental and allied health disciplines effective 1 July 2026, and a new medical services fee schedule effective 1 July 2026 covering GPs and specialists.
• Not every discipline is on the 1 July 2026 schedule. Medical Grade Footwear is still on the 1 November 2025 schedule and dental prosthetists on the 1 July 2025 schedule, so the current fee depends on the discipline, not the calendar.
• GPs are paid 115% of the listed MBS benefit, plus the relevant MRCA or Veterans' Access Payment (VAP), plus a 10% Rural Enhancement Initiative (REI) loading where it applies. VAP is paid at 100% of the MBS fee and is claimable using the Medicare bulk billing incentive item numbers.
• Shaded item numbers require prior financial authorisation from DVA before treatment starts. The discipline schedules also flag restrictions on particular items, and this is the single most common cause of an unpaid allied health invoice.
• Compensation assessment fees were indexed on 1 July 2026: GP item DCC01 rose from $49.90 to $51.55, and DCC05 from $176.99 to $182.83. Across all ten compensation items the increase works out at about 3.3% (calculated from the published rates; DVA does not publish a headline percentage).
• Two figures on DVA's own provider pages had not caught up with the 1 July indexation as at 1 August 2026 (item 900 and the DCN04 maximum, both detailed below). The fee schedule and the software vendor file, not the fee-note web pages, are what the payment system runs on.
• From 1 July 2027, DVA will invest $169.7 million to lift allied health fees, remove the 12-session treatment cycle, and apply a $5,000 annual threshold per veteran per financial year. Consultation with providers opens August 2026.

DVA's current fee schedules took effect on 1 July 2026: 20 separate dental and allied health discipline schedules, and one medical services schedule for GPs and specialists. Indexation runs annually on 1 July in line with the MBS. The fastest way to check an item is to open your discipline's schedule and read the fee column, then check whether the item is shaded.

Which DVA fee schedule applies to you, and when did it take effect?

DVA does not publish one combined fee schedule. It publishes one file per discipline, as PDF and DOCX, and a separate consolidated schedule for medical services. This matters because the schedules do not all move on the same date. Most disciplines were refreshed on 1 July 2026, but two were not, so a provider who assumes the current schedule is the July one can quote from a file that was never updated for their profession.

The dental and allied health page was last updated 24 July 2026 and the GP and specialist page on 21 July 2026. DVA also publishes machine readable software vendor files so practice management software can be updated: an XML and an XLSX file for dental and allied health effective 1 July 2026, and a separate XML and XLSX pair for medical services. If your vendor has not pushed the current file, your software is quoting last year's rates even though the schedule on the website is correct.

What changed in the DVA fee schedules on 1 July 2026?

Fees rose. DVA does not publish a headline percentage, so the movement has to be read item by item against the previous schedule. Physiotherapy is a clean example because it had a 1 January 2026 schedule to compare against.

All fees are excluding GST and all of the above are GST-free. Note the five cent gap that opened on 1 July: a standard physiotherapy consultation in rooms is $77.10 but the same consultation by video conference is $77.05. Before 1 July they were identical. It is a trivial amount per service and a reconciliation headache at volume, so set the telehealth items separately in your billing software rather than mapping them to the in-rooms fee.

Other disciplines carry their own item prefixes and structures. Psychologists use US items (US19 and US41, consultation 20 to 50 minutes by video or phone, are $118.70; US52 trauma focussed therapy 90 minutes or more in rooms is $251.60; US18 group therapy 60 minutes is $42.90). Occupational therapists use OT items and have a separate aids assessment structure (OT40 special consultation for major modifications is $302.25). Multi-disciplinary case conferencing is priced consistently across disciplines: 15 to under 20 minutes is $58.50, 20 to under 40 minutes is $100.30, and 40 minutes or over is $166.85.

How are DVA fees calculated for GPs and specialists?

The medical services schedule works differently to the allied health schedules. Rather than listing standalone fees, it derives them from the MBS. GPs are paid at 115% of the listed MBS benefit, plus the relevant MRCA or Veterans' Access Payment, plus the Rural Enhancement Initiative loading where the service is provided in a designated rural public hospital. The REI loading is an additional 10%. Derived fees are marked with a D in the fee column and are calculated at 115% of the listed MBS benefit using the ready reckoner in the same booklet.

Two mechanics catch practices out. First, VAP is not payable on items provided to inpatients of a hospital or day surgery, or on Coordinated Veterans' Care Program UP items. Second, the Workforce Incentive Program Practice Stream DVA loading is a separate annual payment to practices that receive Practice Stream payments and see Gold Card holders. Services Australia identifies eligible practices and pays once a year in the August quarter. For 1 July 2026 the loading amount is $70.38.

One further mechanic changed on 13 August 2026. Under the Health Insurance (Professional Services Review Scheme) Amendment (Prescribed Pattern of Services) Regulations 2026 (F2026L01049), DVA-funded attendances that would otherwise have attracted a Medicare benefit now count alongside Medicare services toward the PSR prescribed pattern, meaning both the 80/20 and 30/20 rules. Only services rendered on or after 13 August 2026 are included, so any daily servicing report built from Medicare data alone now understates the count: see our Medicare 80/20 rule guide.

A handful of DVA-specific rates sit outside the main schedule and are easy to miss: the kilometre allowance is 76 cents per kilometre after the first 10 kilometres, medication reviews are $117.00 in rooms (CP20) and $153.85 at the patient's home or an institution (CP21), and DVA pays 140% of the MBS fee when an ophthalmologist claims optical coherence tomography items 11219 or 11220.

What do shaded items and prior financial authorisation mean?

DVA states plainly that the fee schedules for dental and each allied health discipline notate items that require prior financial authorisation, and that if an item requires it you must contact DVA for approval before commencing treatment. The schedules also identify restrictions placed on particular items. In the PDFs this is done by shading the item number, with a note that shaded items require prior financial authorisation from DVA.

This is the difference between an invoice that is paid and one that is not, and it is not recoverable after the fact. Practical examples from the current schedules: trauma focussed therapy may be provided for up to eight sessions without prior financial authorisation, after which a case review (US17, $123.30) must be provided to DVA and authorisation sought for any further treatment. Telehealth outside DVA's standard permanent telehealth conditions is considered case by case, but only via prior financial authorisation. On the GP and specialist side, compensation report fees above the listed rate are not payable without prior authorisation, requested before the service by emailing compensation.trn.prior.approval@dva.gov.au or completing form D9551.

The operational fix is a standing rule in your booking or billing workflow: before a DVA service that is not a standard consultation, check the item in the current schedule for shading and for a restriction note. For queries about fees, prior approvals and fee schedules, DVA's Health Provider Line is 1800 550 457.

How do you find a DVA item number and fee?

Work from the schedule for your discipline, not from memory or a vendor screen. The discipline PDFs use a consistent table structure: ITEM NO., DESCRIPTION, FEE (excluding GST), GST STATUS, split by setting, so the same service carries different item numbers in rooms, at home, by telehealth, and in a private hospital or residential aged care facility. Getting the setting wrong is a more common error than getting the fee wrong.

One caution applies right now. As at 1 August 2026, two figures published on DVA's own provider pages have not caught up with the 1 July indexation. The fee notes page lists MBS item 900 at $196.05 in its Dose Administration Aid table, while the medical services fee schedule effective 1 July 2026 lists item 900 at $207.75. On the same fee notes page, the DCN04 fee column reads $225.06 while the description beside it still refers to a maximum of $217.87, which is the pre-indexation figure. The medical services schedule states it lists the fees implemented in the Medicare Australia payment system from 1 July 2026, so treat the fee schedule and the software vendor file as the source of truth and the fee-note pages as commentary. Where the two disagree, ring the Health Provider Line before you invoice.

What are the DVA compensation assessment fees in 2026?

This is a separate payment stream to treatment services. DVA pays GPs and specialists for compensation claim medical assessments and reports, and those fees were substantially increased on 9 February 2026 before receiving their first annual indexation on 1 July 2026. The rates below are the current GP rates, excluding GST. Providing these reports to DVA attracts GST, and the amount must be itemised on your tax invoice.

Across all ten items the increase is about 3.3%, calculated from the published rates rather than taken from a DVA announcement. Psychiatrist compensation fees sit in a separate attachment to the psychiatric compensation claims guidelines and were still shown as effective 9 February 2026 at the time of writing, so they have not moved with the 1 July indexation.

The billing rules on these items have not changed and are strict. You may bill one item number from each of the three guidance notes per request, and the fee applies to the whole request, not per condition. Fees are inclusive of administrative costs, which cannot be billed separately. DVA pays only for reports it has requested: reports requested by veterans, advocates, solicitors or dependants will not be paid, and clinical investigations done before a claim is lodged should be billed through MBS where eligible. Telehealth is generally not considered appropriate for completing DVA requests, and no additional fee is payable if a telehealth assessment is used. Once the paperwork is complete, use the Transaction Reference Number DVA provides to upload your invoice and report to the Provider Upload Page, and itemise every invoice.

Billing integrity enforcement runs alongside this. Non-compliance may result in payment delays while invoices are reviewed, the practitioner being placed on hold so invoices are not processed during an investigation, or DVA refusing to issue TRNs for that practitioner. DVA has flagged two conduct issues for referral to Ahpra: providers receiving financial benefits from non-disclosed links to corporate structures, and modifying medical forms and reports, including where a report is essentially drafted by an advocacy group or altered before DVA receives it. The report must be the practitioner's own clinical work. The same logic that drives Medicare's 80/20 rule and PSR reviews applies on the DVA side. Full detail sits in DVA's fee notes for GPs and specialists and its announcement of the updated compensation fees.

What changes for allied health providers on 1 July 2027?

The 2026-27 Federal Budget, handed down on 12 May 2026, committed $169.7 million to increase fees for allied health providers from 1 July 2027, which DVA describes as the largest investment in allied health fees for veterans in over 20 years. Three things change together:

• Fees rise for chiropractic, diabetes education, dietetics, exercise physiology, occupational therapy, orthotics, osteopathy, physiotherapy, podiatry, psychology, social work and speech therapy. Dental, optical, hearing, medical and specialist services are not included.
• The treatment cycle is removed. The current arrangement of 12 sessions or 12 months, whichever comes first, goes, so veterans can access more than 12 allied health sessions without an additional referral. End of cycle report items exist today for exactly that arrangement, so expect item-level change, not just a price change.
• A $5,000 annual threshold for review of clinical effectiveness applies to allied health services each financial year. DVA will fund above the threshold where there is demonstrated clinical need, and says around 1 in every 10 veteran card holders currently uses more than $5,000 a year, including the higher fees. Open Arms psychology and counselling does not count towards the threshold.

The action for providers is now, not in 2027. From August 2026 DVA is consulting veterans, families, providers, peak bodies and ex-service organisations on how the new arrangements will operate, and has opened an expression of interest portal for participation. The threshold approval pathway is explicitly still being designed, which means the design is genuinely open. See DVA's changes for allied health from July 2027.

What should practices do before the next indexation?

Treat DVA rates as a maintained control, not a once-a-year price update:

• Confirm which schedule applies to each discipline you bill. Do not assume 1 July 2026. Check Medical Grade Footwear and dental prosthetists against their own effective dates.
• Verify your vendor pushed the current file. DVA publishes XML and XLSX vendor files for both dental and allied health and medical services, both effective 1 July 2026. A correct website and a stale software file is the most common failure mode.
• Set telehealth items separately. The physiotherapy telehealth items diverged from the in-rooms fee on 1 July 2026 for the first time.
• Flag shaded items in your workflow. Prior financial authorisation must be obtained before treatment commences, and cannot be fixed after the invoice is rejected.
• Fix GST handling on compensation reports. Those reports attract GST that must be shown separately on the tax invoice, while most treatment consultation items are GST-free. The two streams behave differently.
• Diarise 1 July annually, and register for the August 2026 allied health consultation if you provide any of the twelve affected disciplines.

Because DVA indexation tracks the MBS, run this review alongside your MBS update process and the rest of the 1 July changes rather than as a separate exercise. Practices already running MBS and telehealth billing compliance processes can reuse the same controls: a maintained fee schedule, clear quoting, itemised invoices and an audit trail. General conditions for allied health providers are set out in DVA's fees and guidelines for allied health providers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the current DVA fee schedule for 2026?

For most disciplines it is the schedule effective 1 July 2026. DVA published 20 dental and allied health discipline schedules and one medical services schedule for GPs and specialists on that date. Two exceptions remain current on older schedules: Medical Grade Footwear (1 November 2025) and dental prosthetists (1 July 2025).

When are DVA fees indexed each year?

Indexation of DVA medical and allied health services generally occurs annually on 1 July, consistent with indexation arrangements for the Medicare Benefits Schedule. DVA notes these arrangements may change subject to government policy. Individual schedules can also move off cycle, as physiotherapy, podiatry, speech pathology and dental did on 1 January 2026.

How much does DVA pay a GP compared with the MBS?

GPs are paid 115% of the listed MBS benefit, plus the relevant MRCA or Veterans' Access Payment, plus a 10% Rural Enhancement Initiative loading where the service is at a designated rural public hospital. VAP is paid at 100% of the MBS fee and is claimed using the Medicare bulk billing incentive item numbers, but is not payable for hospital or day surgery inpatients.

What does a shaded item number mean on a DVA fee schedule?

Shaded item numbers require prior financial authorisation from DVA before treatment commences. You must contact DVA for approval first, using the contact details at the end of the schedule. The schedules also identify restrictions placed on particular items. Authorisation cannot be obtained retrospectively, so an unapproved shaded item is usually an unpaid invoice.

Did DVA compensation assessment fees change on 1 July 2026?

Yes. The rates set on 9 February 2026 were indexed on 1 July 2026, an increase of about 3.3% calculated across the ten published items. DCC01 moved from $49.90 to $51.55 and DCC05 from $176.99 to $182.83. Note that DVA's own fee notes page still shows the superseded $217.87 in the DCN04 description while listing $225.06 as the fee.

What happens to DVA allied health fees on 1 July 2027?

Fees rise under a $169.7 million Budget measure, the 12-session treatment cycle is removed, and a $5,000 annual threshold per veteran per financial year is introduced for review of clinical effectiveness. DVA will fund above the threshold where clinical need is demonstrated. Provider consultation opens in August 2026.