AHPRA & Registration

What AHPRA compliance means for a practice

AHPRA regulates individual practitioners, but a practice carries real obligations of its own. You must not let an unregistered or improperly registered person practise in a registered profession, you must respect any conditions on a practitioner's registration, and in defined circumstances you must make a mandatory notification. In short, the regulator registers the practitioner, but the employer is expected to verify, monitor, and act.

These duties are easy to overlook because registration feels like the practitioner's private responsibility. It is not: an employer that fails to check or track registration carries its own exposure, and the systems to manage it are exactly what an accreditation assessor expects to see.

The framework at a glance

Verifying and tracking practitioner registration

The employer duty starts at onboarding and never really stops. Before a practitioner works, verify their registration on the public AHPRA register, confirm the profession and any conditions on registration, and record it. Then track it, because registration is renewed annually and lapses or new conditions can appear at any time. A practitioner working while unregistered, even briefly through an overlooked renewal, is a problem the practice owns.

The practical answer is a register with expiry dates and reminders, so renewals are caught before they pass rather than discovered after.

In-depth guideAHPRA Registration Expiry: What Healthcare Employers Must Check

Registration standards practitioners must meet

Behind registration sit the registration standards each practitioner must satisfy, and an employer benefits from understanding them even though the practitioner holds the duty:

• Continuing professional development: practitioners must complete and record CPD each year, and many practices help track it.
• Professional indemnity insurance: practitioners must hold adequate cover for their scope of practice.
• Recency of practice: practitioners must have practised recently enough to remain competent.
• Scope of practice: practitioners must work within what they are qualified and permitted to do.

These show up in credentialing and in accreditation evidence, so keeping copies of CPD records and indemnity certificates on file is sensible governance.

Mandatory notifications

A mandatory notification is a report that must be made to AHPRA when there are reasonable grounds to believe a practitioner has engaged in notifiable conduct: practising while intoxicated, sexual misconduct, placing the public at risk of substantial harm through impairment, or significant departure from accepted standards. The threshold is high and the duty is personal, but practice managers and colleagues need to know when it is triggered and how to act, because getting it wrong in either direction carries consequences.

In-depth guideAHPRA Mandatory Notifications: Who Reports, What Triggers, Common Mistakes

Telehealth and online prescribing standards

AHPRA's conduct guidance is part of compliance too. Its position that questionnaire-only prescribing without a real-time consultation is not good practice has direct implications for any practice offering telehealth or online scripts. This is a clinical-conduct standard, separate from how telehealth is billed under Medicare.

In-depth guideAHPRA Telehealth Prescribing: What Changed in October 2025 and What It Means in 2026

Common mistakes

• Treating registration as the practitioner's private matter and never verifying or tracking it.
• Missing an annual renewal, so a practitioner works briefly while unregistered.
• Ignoring conditions on registration that the practice was obliged to accommodate.
• Confusing AHPRA conduct standards with Medicare billing rules, for example on telehealth.
• Being unsure when a mandatory notification is required, and either over-reporting or failing to report.

Frequently asked questions

What are an employer's AHPRA obligations?

An employer must not allow an unregistered person to practise in a regulated profession, must verify and track each practitioner's registration and any conditions on it, must accommodate those conditions, and must make a mandatory notification when notifiable conduct is reasonably believed. The regulator registers the practitioner, but the employer is expected to verify and monitor.

How often do we need to check practitioner registration?

Registration is renewed annually, so it should be verified at onboarding and tracked continuously with expiry reminders, not checked once and forgotten. New conditions can also be added during a registration period, which is another reason to monitor rather than rely on a single check.

When must a mandatory notification be made?

A mandatory notification is required when there are reasonable grounds to believe a practitioner has engaged in notifiable conduct: practising while intoxicated by alcohol or drugs, sexual misconduct, placing the public at risk of substantial harm because of an impairment, or a significant departure from accepted professional standards.

Is AHPRA telehealth guidance the same as Medicare telehealth rules?

No. AHPRA's guidance is a clinical-conduct standard about how care is delivered, such as the need for a real-time consultation rather than a questionnaire alone. Medicare telehealth rules are separate billing requirements. A telehealth service must satisfy both.

Last reviewed 20 June 2026