AI medical scribes went from curiosity to normal in Australian general practice in about a year. In newsGP's reader poll, 22% of GPs used one in August 2024 and 40% did by November 2025, and the RACGP told the ABC that figure is conservative.
Here's the bit the scribe companies don't put on their homepages: the scribe writes the note, but the note is still yours, and it's the record Medicare looks at if a claim is ever questioned. If the note doesn't show what the item requires, the item doesn't stand. Paste a note into an MBS item checker like MBS Desk to see which items it may support and what you may have missed. This guide covers the parts of a note scribes most often get wrong.
I build AI tools for a living, so I went through the RACGP, Ahpra, TGA and Avant guidance, the error studies and the scribes' own pricing pages so you don't have to. It's general information, not legal or billing advice. Your medical defence organisation has the final word for your practice.
What is an AI medical scribe?
An AI medical scribe is software that listens to a consultation and drafts the clinical note for the doctor to check and sign. Most run on a phone or the practice computer's microphone, so there's no extra hardware.
An AI medical scribe works in two steps. Speech recognition turns the conversation into a transcript. Then a large language model, the same kind of natural language processing behind ChatGPT, rewrites the transcript into a note in your template: history, examination, assessment and plan. Most scribes can also draft referral letters, patient summaries and care plans from the same consult.
"Ambient" scribes listen in the background, so the doctor doesn't dictate. According to the RACGP, most vendors keep only the text, not the audio.
Heidi and Lyrebird are the AI medical scribes Australian GPs search for most. Telstra Health's Smart Scribe is built into MedicalDirector, and Best Practice includes Lyrebird's free tier in Bp Premier.
Do AI medical scribes help with MBS billing?
Partly. An AI medical scribe captures more of the consult than a rushed typed note, and a couple now suggest MBS items, but every claim is still the GP's responsibility.
Two scribes suggest MBS items today:
- Lyrebird's MBS Billing Suggestions shows the attendance item and other eligible items after the consult, for you to copy into your practice software. It's rolling out to Australian GPs in stages.
- mAIscribe's MBS Helper, on its Pro plan, suggests item combinations from the consult's length and content for the GP to accept or reject.
Heidi's coding feature suggests ICD-10-AM and ACHI codes on paid plans, not MBS items.
None of that moves the responsibility. Avant puts it plainly: "Responsibility for MBS billing remains with you." The Department of Health's billing assurance toolkit says you're responsible for every claim made under your provider number, even when software pre-fills the items.
Canberra is watching AI billing too. In September 2026 the Auditor-General reported that Services Australia had raised concerns about providers using AI to suggest billing options, and the Department agreed to assess the risks of AI in MBS claiming. A Senate Estimates brief released under FOI noted scribe vendors advertising a 30% revenue increase and flagged what that means for MBS costs.
For most GPs, though, the bigger billing problem is under-billing. A 2023 AJGP study of 89,765 consults by 2,760 GPs found 11.8% were undercharged and only 1.6% overcharged, using BEACH data from 2013 to 2016. In a separate survey of 1,852 GPs reported in The Conversation, 33.5% said they'd under-billed for fear of triggering a Professional Services Review alert, and 30.8% were confused about the MBS criteria.
So the useful billing job for an AI scribe isn't adding items. It's writing a note that clearly backs the item you actually earned.
What does an AI scribe note need to show for MBS billing?
An AI scribe note needs to show what the MBS item you bill requires: how long you spent with the patient, that you did the work, what was done, and the patient's agreement where the item asks for it. Medicare's baseline is that records are "adequate and contemporaneous" (GN.15.39): a dated entry for each attendance, with enough clinical detail to explain the service.
I call this the Scribe Note Billing Check: six things to look for in an AI scribe note before you sign it.
- The time, on a timed consult. Level B (item 23) is at least 6 and under 20 minutes, level C (36) is 20 minutes or more, level D (44) is 40 or more, and level E (123) is 60 or more. Only time with the patient counts, and time spent on a procedure at the same visit doesn't count toward the consult (AN.0.9). A scribe records what was said, not the clock, so add the time if yours doesn't.
- Who did the work. Consult items must be personally performed by a medical practitioner (GN.12.30). Scribe notes are often written in the passive voice ("plan prepared today", "bloods taken"), which doesn't say who did it. For a GP mental health treatment plan, a practice nurse can assist but the GP provides the service (AN.0.56), so make the note say "I prepared the plan with the patient".
- Everything the plan has to contain. A GP chronic condition management plan (item 965, and 967 to review it) must set out the condition and the patient's needs, goals agreed with the patient, the patient's own actions, treatments and referrals, and review arrangements, with the patient's agreement recorded and a copy offered (AN.0.47). A scribe captures the conversation but won't always lay it out that way. MBS Desk's care plan item numbers guide covers the timing and same-day rules, and the phone versions of the plan items that start on 1 November 2026.
- A separate problem, if you bill a consult beside something else. A consult billed with a procedure has to be clinically relevant and distinct from it, and the procedure's own consent, results discussion and routine aftercare don't count as a consult (AN.0.9). Beside a health assessment, a separate consult has to be clinically necessary (AN.0.36). The note should show the separate problem and what you did about it.
- Telehealth eligibility, on a phone or video consult. Most phone and video items need an established clinical relationship: the patient is registered with your practice in MyMedicare, or you or your practice saw them face to face in the last 12 months. If an exemption applies, such as a child under 12 months, note it at the time (AN.1.1).
- Nothing you didn't do. Scribes have written examination findings into notes for phone consults (Fox et al.). A recorded exam that never happened supports a claim you can't make, so delete anything that didn't happen.
What AI scribe errors in healthcare should GPs check for?
The AI scribe errors that matter most are things the patient never said (hallucinations), things they said that got left out (omissions), negatives flipped into positives, the wrong side of the body, wrong medicines or allergies, and words put in the wrong person's mouth.
What the research on AI scribe errors shows so far:
- Hallucinations and omissions. In a 2025 npj Digital Medicine study of 450 notes from 25 mock UK primary care consults, 1.47% of note sentences were hallucinated and 44% of those were rated major. Nearly a third of the hallucinations were negations, and 3.45% of what was said never made it into the note. The authors are linked to a UK scribe company.
- One note in three. A 2026 preprint, not yet peer reviewed, ran 142 consults through three commercial scribes and found a verified failure in 31.3% of notes. The failures clustered in allergies, medications, invented patient details and examination findings written up for phone consults.
- Interpreters. When a consult went through an interpreter, two scribes carried the interpreter's mistakes into the note 55% and 60% of the time (JMIR Medical Informatics, 2026).
- Left and right. The RACGP's Dr Sean Stevens told the ABC that scribes often get the side of the body wrong.
It's not all bad news. In an April 2026 AJGP study of four simulated GP consults, notes from four commercial scribes scored as well as or better than the GPs' own typed notes. Both sets had hallucinations.
The Australian cases are real, too. In August 2026 the ABC reported that a urologist's scribe-assisted letter told a patient's GP she micro-dosed psychedelic mushrooms. She didn't. Digital Rights Watch has collected others, including the wrong breast recorded in a breast cancer diagnosis and epilepsy recorded for a patient who didn't have it.
To check an AI scribe note fast, read the plan first, then medicines and allergies, then every "no" and "denies", then left and right. Take extra care with interpreted and phone consults. Avant's view is blunt: blaming the scribe "will not be a defence".
Do patients need to consent to an AI medical scribe?
Yes. The RACGP, Ahpra and Avant all say to get the patient's consent before the AI medical scribe starts, every consult, and to record it in the notes.
- Verbal is usually fine. The RACGP and Avant accept verbal consent recorded in the note, unless your medical defence organisation says otherwise. Some scribes record the consent for you.
- Recording laws apply. Avant says consent from everyone in the room is legally required to record in the ACT, NSW, SA, Tasmania and WA, and best practice in the NT, Queensland and Victoria. Ahpra warns recording without consent may have criminal implications.
- Patients can say no. If a patient declines, Avant says to go ahead with the consult without the scribe. If consent is withdrawn partway, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care says to stop the recording and delete the data and outputs.
- Tell patients before they walk in. The RACGP says to update your practice privacy policy and tell patients through signs, forms and your website.
Regulators are watching this one. In May 2026 the Privacy Commissioner named GP practices' AI scribe consent as a focus, after meeting the RACGP, Ahpra, the TGA and scribe vendors.
Are AI medical scribes regulated by the TGA?
Only if they do more than record what was said. The TGA says an AI medical scribe that only transcribes and summarises isn't a medical device. One that suggests a diagnosis or treatment the clinician didn't state is a medical device, and must be in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) before it's supplied.
That line matters because scribes are drifting over it. The TGA's July 2025 report heard from users whose scribes proposed diagnoses or treatments beyond what the clinician said, and recommended a review of scribes. That review is under way, and the TGA says its outcomes will be published shortly. In August 2026 the TGA told the ABC that none of the roughly 12 scribes available in Australia is approved.
The TGA also says a software update can change a scribe's status, so re-check after updates. Scribes that aren't devices still fall under the Privacy Act, Ahpra's standards and Australian Consumer Law.
Is patient data safe with an AI medical scribe?
It depends on the vendor. Health information is sensitive information under the Privacy Act, so before you use an AI medical scribe, find out where the data is stored, how long it's kept, and whether it's used to train AI.
- Where it's stored. If a vendor processes data overseas, the practice stays accountable for what happens to it under APP 8. Victoria requires its public health services to use only scribes that store and process data in Australia, and that's a good bar for a private practice too.
- How long it's kept. Avant says some scribes keep audio, some keep text only and some keep nothing, for anything from days to weeks.
- What else it's used for. The RACGP says to check for secondary use, such as training the vendor's AI model or on-selling data.
- What the contract says. Avant's scribe checklist warns that a broad indemnity clause in a vendor contract may not be covered by your Avant policy.
The RACGP's questions to ask a vendor are a good starting list: Is there published evidence? Was it tested in Australian general practice? Does it comply with the Privacy Act? Is data stored in Australia? Is it used for anything else?
Do AI medical scribes actually save GPs time?
Yes, though less than the marketing suggests. A 2026 JAMA study of 8,581 US clinicians found AI scribes cut documentation time by 16 minutes for every 8 hours of scheduled patients, and by 26.9 minutes in primary care. After-hours work didn't change.
Closer to home, Metro South Health in Queensland trialled Heidi in 2025. Clinicians saved 59 minutes a day on average and 92% did less admin, but only 22% said their wellbeing improved. More than 70% of patients felt the clinician spent more time with them.
On burnout, a 2025 US study across six health systems found burnout fell from 51.9% to 38.8% after 30 days with a scribe. It had no control group, and some authors had ties to the vendor.
How much does an AI medical scribe cost in Australia?
An AI medical scribe costs from nothing to about A$240 a month per clinician in Australia. Heidi and Lyrebird both have free plans, and most full-time paid plans sit between A$85 and A$240 a month, before GST.
| AI medical scribe | Free plan | Paid plan, per clinician (ex GST) |
|---|---|---|
| Heidi | Yes, unlimited notes | A$85 a month billed yearly, or A$120 monthly |
| Lyrebird | Yes, 50 actions and 10 letters a month (unlimited notes inside Bp Premier) | A$160 a month billed yearly, or A$240 monthly |
| i-scribe | No, 14-day trial | A$150 a month for GPs, billed yearly |
| mAIscribe | Not listed | A$67 a month (Basic) or A$150 (Pro, with MBS Helper), billed yearly |
| Halaxy | Free during Halaxy video consults | 1 credit per 15 minutes, at A$0.15 to A$0.22 a credit including GST |
| Smart Scribe (MedicalDirector) | 30-day trial | Not published |
Prices come from each vendor's own pricing page.
