MBS 699 Heart Health Check: the 20-minute item that's already changed your patient's BP

Introduced in 2019 and updated in 2023, MBS item 699 funds a 20-minute Heart Health Check — a structured cardiovascular risk assessment using the AusCVDRisk calculator. Rebate is $77.05. It can be billed every two years for eligible patients.

Who qualifies

Adults 45-79 (35-79 if Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander) without known cardiovascular disease. That's a large slice of the average Australian general practice — and most of them have never been asked.

Why it works (and why it's underclaimed)

The AusCVDRisk calculator gives a 5-year risk percentage. Patients respond to numbers in a way they don't respond to vague warnings. 'You have a 14% chance of a cardiovascular event in the next 5 years' lands differently than 'your cholesterol is a bit high'.

It's underclaimed for the usual reason: the 20-minute structured assessment doesn't fit a 15-minute consult. Without dedicated tooling, the check gets started, never finished, and never billed.

What changes when the patient does half of it

Family history, smoking, alcohol, exercise habits — the patient knows these answers better than you do. If they complete them on their phone the night before the appointment, you walk in with the inputs ready. The risk score is calculated. The conversation is about what to do, not what's true.

A 20-minute clinical assessment becomes an 8-minute decision-focused consult — and the 699 actually gets billed.