Fees

The National Scheme is designed to be self-funded through fees paid by practitioners and does not receive any ongoing government subsidisation. 

The fee paid by practitioners has two components: the registration fee and the application fee. The registration fee is set for each profession by their respective National Board and there is no cross-subsidisation between professions. For example, the fees paid by nurses and/or midwives only fund the work of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia and will not be used by any other National Board. The application component of the fee paid covers the administrative costs associated with assessing the application. 

Being registered with Ahpra and your National Board is a requirement to safely and legally practise your profession in Australia. The registration process you complete and the registration fee you pay is different to any optional memberships you may hold such as with a professional association.

The fee paid by practitioners keeps the public safe by regulating the 16 health professions regulated under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (the National Scheme).

The National Boards work with Ahpra each year to set their annual registration fees. The fee schedule for each Board is published on the National Board’s website under Registration. Please check your Board’s fee schedule for this year’s fee.

If your principal place of practice is New South Wales, your registration fee may be a different amount because of differences in how complaints are handled in NSW due to co-regulation.

Your registration fee must be paid the first time you register and each year you wish to remain a registered health practitioner. Ongoing registration fees must be paid during the renewal period, listed below.

The registration renewal date for following Boards is 30 November:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice
• Chinese Medicine
• Chiropractic
• Medical Radiation Practice
• Occupational Therapy
• Optometry
• Osteopathy
• Paramedicine
• Pharmacy
• Physiotherapy
• Podiatry
• Psychology

Important registration renewal dates

• 30 November: Expiry of your registration. 
• 1 December: Start of late period (late payment fee plus registration renewal fee). 
• 1 January: Registration lapses (your name is removed from the national register).

The registration renewal date for the Medical Board is 30 September and the registration renewal date for the Nursing and Midwifery Board is 31 May.

You can check your registration details and expiry date on the national register of practitioners.

You can read more about the registration process on Ahpra’s registration process page.

In NSW, notifications (complaints) about registered health practitioners are managed by the NSW Health Professional Councils Authority (HPCA) and not by Ahpra, as is the case for the rest of Australia. 

The registration fee for health practitioners whose principal place of practice (PPP) is NSW reflects this difference. The NSW registration fee has two components; the first relates to the registration and accreditation functions of the National Scheme and is calculated by Ahpra. The second component relates to the notifications function and is set by the HPCA.

If the total of the two components is less than the national fee, practitioners with a PPP in NSW receive a rebate in the form of a lower fee. If the total is higher than the national fee, practitioners pay a surcharge.

Ahpra collect the agreed registration fee as part of the annual registration renewal process and remit this amount to the HPCA on a monthly basis. You can read more about this process on the Ministerial directives and communiques page.

• AHWMC Policy Direction Fees NSW - 17 November 2009 (PDF, 57.6KB)

For more information about the HPCA please see the HPCA website.

Each year, the National Boards in partnership with Ahpra agree the national registration fee. Fees are set in order to meet the full costs of regulating each profession within the National Scheme without any government funding. Fees are published in the Health Professions Agreement between Ahpra and each National Board. 

The guiding principles of the National Law require the National Scheme to operate in a ‘transparent, accountable, efficient, effective and fair way’; and for registration fees to be reasonable ‘…having regard to the efficient and effective operation of the scheme’.

The National Scheme is designed to be self-funded through fees paid by practitioners and does not receive any ongoing government subsidisation.

The annual registration fee is set for each profession by their respective National Board in partnership with Ahpra. The National Boards work closely with Ahpra to keep fees as low as possible while continuing to meet regulatory obligations and the expectations of the public and practitioners.

National Boards may index their fees each year to meet the full costs of regulating each profession, respond to change (e.g. increase in number of notifications) and maintain an appropriate level of equity. The National Boards consider a range of factors when setting the level of indexation including the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)’s target for inflation of 2-3% and the Consumer Price Index (CPI). To find out more about this process please see the Ahpra Fee setting policy (154 KB, PDF).

Health practitioner registration fees fund the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (the National Scheme) for registered health practitioners. 

The application component of the fee paid covers the administrative costs associated with assessing the application. 

The National Scheme is administered in partnership by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) and the 15 National Boards. You can read more about what Ahpra does on the Who we are and What we do pages. You can read about each National Board on their respective websites.

Every year each of the National Boards and Ahpra publish a health profession agreement that details the fees payable by health practitioners, the annual budget of the National Board and the services provided by Ahpra that allow the National Boards to carry out their functions under the National Law. You can read more about the health profession agreements here. 

The registration fee is a once-a-year payment and is paid at the full amount at the time that you are granted registration regardless of how long you hold registration during that period.

For example, if you gained registration three months into the registration period, you would pay the same amount as a practitioner of the same profession who gained registration nine months into the registration period.

The only exception to this is for practitioners who gain registration within the final two months of the registration period, these practitioners are granted registration without the need to pay the registration fee until the next renewal period, this can be a period of up to 14 months. 

Ahpra and the National Board operate on an annual planning cycle which includes setting a flat annual fee. Each National Board determines the level of funding they need each year on the basis that fees are not pro-rated, this helps keeps the cost for all practitioners lower than it may otherwise be.

It also means that if you hold more than one type of registration (within the same profession), you still only pay a one-off registration fee each year, you do not have to pay a fee for each type of registration you hold.

We try to make the once-a-year payment requirement clear on application forms so practitioners can make decisions about their entry to practise accordingly.

There may be circumstances in which you may be entitled to receive a refund for either the registration fee, or the application and registration fee.

You may be entitled to a total refund of both the application and registration fees if:

• you withdraw your application before we have started assessing your registration, or
• your application was submitted in error and we have not started assessing your registration.

You may be entitled to a refund of the registration fee if:

• your application is refused or not approved
• you withdraw your application before it has been finalised or refused by a National Board, or
• your application is taken to be withdrawn (e.g. You failed to provide further information within the required time).

We will not refund registration fees if:

• you voluntarily surrender your registration
• your registration is suspended, or
• your registration is cancelled.

For more information including how you can request a refund, please see:

• Fact Sheet - Refunding fees (108 KB,PDF)

The only way to renew your general, specialist or non-practising registration is to log into your account and renew online. You can pay securely by credit or debit card and your application is received as soon as you hit ‘submit’.

If you are having difficulties paying online, please contact us.

If you are renewing provisional or limited registration, you must download your renewal form from the Provisional and limited registration renewal page and then upload your documents along with your payment details (credit or debit card) via our Online Upload.

If you’re completing an online application, you’ll be prompted to make payment by credit/debit card at the end of your online application form. If you have any difficulties with the payment page, please make sure your browser is up to date as older version can sometimes cause problems.

If your browser is up to date and you’re still having issues making payment on our website please lodge a web enquiry. Our team will aim to get back to you within two business days. 

Alternatively. you can call us on 1300 419 495 (within Australia) or +61 3 9125 3010 (outside Australia).  

If you use a credit or debit card to pay your registration, payment will be taken off your card immediately.

This is because the amount payable when you submit your registration application includes both the application fee and the registration fee. The application fee must be paid when you submit your application, we take both fees at the same time to make the registration process easier. 

If your application for registration is refused by a National Board or you accidentally overpay, you could be entitled to a refund. Find out how to apply for a refund please see the factsheet.

Ahpra produces an annual report that details our work to implement the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme. This includes information about each Board’s financial management. 

You can read the most recent annual report on the Ahpra Annual reports page. You can access previous years’ reports from the Annual report archive. 

We welcome your feedback as it helps us improve our services and we have a complaints management framework in place to make sure we listen to your concerns, and respond to complaints promptly, empathetically and fairly. 

To read more about this process, or to lodge feedback or a complaint, please visit our Complaints and feedback about us page.