Heart Health Check — Australia's Medicare-Funded CVD Assessment

A plain-English guide to the Medicare Heart Health Check (MBS item 699). What it is, who's eligible, what's covered, and how to ask your GP for one.

Who can have one

Three things make you eligible:

1. You're aged 30 or over and Medicare-eligible.
2. You haven't had another Medicare health assessment in the last 12 months — the only exception is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Health Assessment (item 715), which doesn't count for this purpose.
3. You're not currently an inpatient of a hospital or a care recipient in a residential care home.

Source: MBS Book July 2026, item 699 descriptor and explanatory note AN.14.2.

Am I eligible? Quick check

What's covered in the 20 minutes

The MBS sets five required components. Tap each to see what it usually involves.

Source: MBS Book July 2026, item 699 descriptor; Australian Absolute Cardiovascular Disease Risk Calculator (cvdcheck.org.au); ACDPA absolute CVD risk guideline (under revision — current resources at acdpa.org.au).

What "absolute cardiovascular risk" means

Australian guidelines use a calculator-based estimate of your chance of having a heart attack or stroke in the next 5 years, based on:

• Age, sex, and ethnicity
• Smoking status
• Blood pressure
• Total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol
• Diabetes status
• Existing kidney disease, atrial fibrillation, or evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy

Risk is then expressed as a percentage and grouped (broadly) into low, intermediate, or high. The calculator used in Australia is at cvdcheck.org.au. AskMyGP also has a CVD Risk Calculator you can use beforehand to get a sense of where you might sit.

Your absolute risk is what guides the conversation — not just any single number on its own. Someone with mildly elevated cholesterol but no other risk factors may be at low overall risk, while someone with several moderate risk factors combined can be at high risk even with each individual number looking "OK".

Source: Australian Absolute Cardiovascular Disease Risk Calculator (cvdcheck.org.au); Australian Guidelines for the assessment and management of absolute cardiovascular disease risk (currently under revision by the Australian Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance — see acdpa.org.au).

When the cited sources say "see your GP"

AskMyGP doesn't give individual medical advice. But several scenarios appear in the Heart Foundation, RACGP and ACDPA resources as worth raising with your doctor:

• Chest pain, breathlessness, palpitations, or dizziness with exertion — these warrant medical attention rather than a routine check
• Strong family history — heart attack or stroke in a parent or sibling under 55 (men) / 65 (women)
• Existing risk factors — high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, kidney disease
• Recent significant lifestyle change — smoking history, significant weight changes, new physical inactivity
• It's been more than 2 years since you last had your blood pressure and cholesterol checked

For symptom support outside of consultations, the Heart Foundation Helpline is 13 11 12 (open business hours). In a suspected cardiac emergency — chest pain that doesn't go away, severe shortness of breath, sudden weakness on one side of the body — call 000.

Sources cited on this page

About this page: Last reviewed May 2026. AskMyGP provides information, not medical advice. The Heart Health Check is one option for a structured cardiovascular conversation with your GP — it doesn't replace seeing your doctor for symptoms or specific concerns.