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Travelling for a scan: your imaging appointment checklist

7 Jul 2026 12 min read No comments Clinic Access
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By Dr. Mark Bekhit, Radiologist · Last updated July 2026

Short answer: Call the clinic before you travel, with the referral in front of you, and ask three things: is the exact scan written on my referral Medicare-rebatable at your location, what will I pay on the day (get the figure in writing), and what preparation applies to me. Travelling is common because specialised imaging is concentrated — about 486 of the roughly 940 imaging clinics listed in our directory offer MRI, and only 140 offer PET-CT, as at July 2026. Every state also runs a travel subsidy scheme for eligible rural patients. The full 10-point list is below.

The pre-travel checklist: 10 things to sort out before you go

A scan appointment fails for boring reasons: the referral says left shoulder and the booking says right, the machine at that site isn’t Medicare-eligible for your item, you ate breakfast before a fasting scan, or your pacemaker was never cleared for the MRI. Any one of these can end with a cancelled appointment — annoying if you live ten minutes away, expensive if you drove four hours from Dubbo or flew in from Mount Isa.

Every point below is a two-minute phone question. Work through them in one call to the clinic, ideally a week before you travel, so there is time to fix problems while you are still at home.

The pre-travel imaging checklist

  1. Read the referral aloud when you book. State the exact scan, body part, side and the reason your doctor wrote — that wording is what the clinic checks against the Medicare schedule, not your summary of it.
  2. Ask the Medicare question: “Is this exact scan Medicare-rebatable at your location, on your equipment?” Not every MRI machine is Medicare-eligible, so the same referral can be rebatable at one site and full-fee at another.
  3. Get the cost in writing. Bulk billed means you pay nothing; otherwise ask for the out-of-pocket figure by email or SMS before you commit to travelling.
  4. Ask what preparation applies to you — fasting hours, water, medication changes (especially diabetes medication before PET), and whether contrast is planned.
  5. Do the safety screening from home. For MRI, declare pacemakers, implants, surgical clips, metal fragments and possible pregnancy when you book — not in the waiting room — and ask whether they need your implant documents first.
  6. Arrange your old images. Ask whether the clinic can retrieve prior scans electronically or from My Health Record, or whether you should bring films or a disc.
  7. Ask what to bring: the referral itself, your Medicare card, any concession card, implant or device cards, a medication list and your prior images.
  8. Ask about timing and access — arrival time (an FDG PET-CT includes about 90 minutes of rest after the tracer injection, so plan for half a day), parking or drop-off, and whether you need a driver if sedation is planned.
  9. Ask how and when results arrive: how many days until the report reaches your referrer, whether you can get the images before you leave, and who to call if nothing has arrived.
  10. Apply for travel assistance before you book transport. Every state and territory runs one — IPTAAS in NSW, the PTSS in Queensland, VPTAS in Victoria among them. Ask your referrer’s practice or your local public hospital to start the paperwork.

If the scan is an MRI, the booking call has extra traps of its own — item eligibility, GP-versus-specialist referral rules and contrast questions. Our MRI and Medicare guide has the word-for-word booking script and the full list of MRI scans a GP can refer.

Will Medicare pay at a clinic far from home?

The referral travels with you, not with the clinic it was written for. Healthdirect states it plainly: you can choose your own diagnostic imaging practice, even if your referral is printed on a form for a specific service (healthdirect, accessed 7 July 2026). A referral form branded for your local provider works at a city clinic 300 km away. What you cannot do is skip the referral: without one, Medicare contributes nothing to the cost of the scan.

The money mechanics are the same everywhere in Australia. If the clinic bulk bills your scan, Medicare pays the clinic directly and you pay nothing. If it doesn’t, the clinic sets its own fee, Medicare pays 85% of the schedule fee for out-of-hospital services, and the difference is yours (Department of Health, Medicare costs, accessed 7 July 2026). Two clinics in the same suburb can quote different gaps for the same referral, which is exactly why the written quote belongs on your list before you spend money on travel.

MRI has one extra trap for travellers. Not every MRI machine in Australia is Medicare-eligible: since 1 July 2025, all machines at locations on the Department of Health’s register can provide every MRI service on the Medicare schedule, and from 1 July 2027 the restriction lifts for all machines (health.gov.au MRI and PET locations, accessed 7 July 2026). Until then, a scan that is rebatable at one site can be full-fee at another — ask the question in point 2 every time, and check the clinic appears on the state list. Which scans attract a rebate in the first place differs by modality; our guide to Medicare-eligible scans covers each one.

Why travelling for a scan is so common

If your GP has sent you a long way for an MRI or a PET-CT, that is the geography of Australian imaging, not bad luck. X-ray rooms and ultrasound machines fit in suburban clinics; MRI magnets and PET scanners mostly don’t, and PET also needs a supply chain for short-lived radioactive tracers. The result shows up clearly in the numbers.

Listed in the Imaging Finder directory Clinics
All imaging clinics, nationally about 940
Clinics listing MRI about 486
Clinics listing PET-CT 140

Counts are clinic listings published in our directory as at July 2026. A clinic listing a service doesn’t guarantee every item is rebatable there — that is what the booking call settles.

PET-CT is the starkest case: of those 140 sites, about 24 are in Sydney, 20 in Brisbane and 20 in Melbourne — nearly half the national supply in three cities. For many regional patients the nearest PET scanner is a capital city or a large regional centre, full stop. Our comparison of Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth clinics maps where that capacity sits, and the service pages — for example MRI in Perth or PET-CT in Brisbane — list the individual clinics with contact details.

Distance also changes the public-versus-private decision. A public hospital list might mean a shorter drive but a longer wait; a private clinic in the city might scan you this week for a gap fee. The trade-offs are covered in our guide to radiology wait times, public versus private.

Travel and accommodation help you can claim

Every state and territory runs a scheme that helps cover the cost of travelling to health services you can’t get locally (healthdirect, accessed 7 July 2026). They go by different names:

  • NSW — Isolated Patients Travel and Accommodation Assistance Scheme (IPTAAS)
  • Queensland — Patient Travel Subsidy Scheme (PTSS)
  • Victoria — Victorian Patient Transport Assistance Scheme (VPTAS)
  • Western Australia — Patient Assisted Travel Scheme (PATS)
  • South Australia — Patient Assistance Transport Scheme (PATS)
  • Tasmania — Patient Travel Assistance Scheme
  • NT — Patient Assistance Travel Scheme; ACT — Interstate Patient Travel Assistance Scheme

All of them help with public-transport travel costs, accommodation at your destination, and the travel and accommodation of an eligible support person or carer; some also subsidise private-car kilometres, taxis and private accommodation (healthdirect, as above). Each scheme sets its own distance and eligibility rules, and they are concrete numbers, not judgement calls: Queensland’s PTSS, for example, can subsidise travel to a private specialist service when that service is not available within 50 km of your closest public hospital or health facility (Queensland Government, About the PTSS, accessed 7 July 2026). Ask the practice that referred you, or your local public hospital, which scheme and threshold apply to you — and start the paperwork before you book transport.

Preparation and what to pack

Preparation rules exist because they change the pictures. Break them and the clinic may have to rebook you — the wasted trip that one phone question would have prevented.

For an FDG PET-CT, you will be asked not to eat for several hours beforehand; water is fine and actively encouraged. After the tracer injection you rest quietly for about 90 minutes before the scan starts, so block out half a day. If you have diabetes, the clinic will give you specific instructions and you may need to pause some diabetes medications (InsideRadiology, PET scan, accessed 7 July 2026). Booking-to-results mechanics for PET, including the specialist-referral rule, are in our PET-CT guide.

For MRI, the safety work happens before the magnet, and it can happen from home. Every patient completes a safety questionnaire; if you have a pacemaker or any implant, tell the practice when you book — some devices need to be identified from their documentation before the scan can go ahead, and occasionally a different test is arranged instead. Bring any implant cards or operation records you have. If you are claustrophobic, say so when booking: sedation can be arranged, but you will need someone to take you home afterwards (InsideRadiology, MRI, accessed 7 July 2026).

Some CT scans need iodine contrast, given as a drink or an injection, and the clinic will tell you whether to fast when you book (InsideRadiology, iodine contrast, accessed 7 July 2026). Ultrasound has its own rules — fasting for abdominal studies, a full bladder for pelvic ones — covered in our ultrasound preparation guide.

The packing list is short: the referral, your Medicare card and any concession card, implant or device cards, a list of your medications, and your prior images. On prior imaging, InsideRadiology’s advice for PET applies to every scan: take any previous X-ray or radiology images with you, because comparison with them can be very helpful to the specialist reporting your scan. If your old scans were done at a different provider, ask your booking clinic whether it can pull them electronically or from My Health Record — and if not, ask the original provider for a disc or an access link before you leave home.

Results: who gets the report, and when?

The radiologist’s report goes to the doctor who referred you — the referral exists precisely so the answer lands back with your own doctor, and healthdirect notes your doctor will be told your results. The report is also uploaded to My Health Record unless you have told your doctor you don’t want that (healthdirect, accessed 7 July 2026).

For a traveller, two questions matter before you drive away. First: how many days until the report reaches my referrer, and will anything urgent be phoned through sooner? Second: can I take my images with me now — as a disc, film or an online access link — so a follow-up appointment back home doesn’t stall waiting for them? Both are reasonable requests and clinics handle them daily. Then book the follow-up with your referrer for after the report is due, and if the report arrives before that appointment, our guide to reading your radiology report explains the language you’ll find in it.

Frequently asked questions about travelling for a scan

Can I use a referral that names a different clinic?

Yes. You can choose your own diagnostic imaging practice even if the referral is on another provider’s branded form, per healthdirect. Take the original referral with you, or ask your GP’s practice to send it to the clinic you chose. The referral itself is what Medicare needs — not the clinic name printed on the form.

Will the scan cost more in the city?

Not necessarily — clinics set their own fees, and bulk-billing policies differ clinic by clinic rather than city by country. The rebate rules are national: bulk billed means $0, otherwise Medicare pays 85% of the schedule fee out of hospital and you pay the gap. The only reliable way to know is the written quote before you travel.

Can I get help with fuel and accommodation?

Often, yes — and the thresholds are written down, not discretionary. Queensland’s PTSS, for example, applies when the specialist service isn’t available within 50 km of your closest public hospital or health facility. Every state and territory runs a scheme — IPTAAS in NSW, VPTAS in Victoria, PATS in WA and SA among them — covering travel, accommodation and an eligible support person. Start the application before the trip.

How long will the appointment actually take?

Longer than the scan. An FDG PET-CT includes about 90 minutes of quiet rest after the tracer injection before scanning starts, so plan for half a day. MRI appointments stretch when contrast or sedation is involved, and sedation means you cannot drive home. Ask for a realistic door-to-door time when you book, and build your transport around it.

Will the clinic already have my old scans?

Only sometimes. Your reports are uploaded to My Health Record unless you have opted out (healthdirect) — but the images themselves often are not, and a clinic unrelated to your previous provider may hold neither. Ask when you book whether they can retrieve your prior imaging; if not, request a disc or online access link from the original provider before travelling.

How we know: sources and methodology

Clinic counts come from the listings published in the Imaging Finder directory in July 2026. They are a reliable guide to where MRI and PET-CT are offered, not a guarantee about your specific scan — the clinic checks your referral wording against the current Medicare schedule when you book. Medicare, referral and travel-scheme facts were checked on 7 July 2026 against the sources below. State travel schemes set their own eligibility rules, which change; the healthdirect page links to each scheme’s current application details.

If your scan means travelling to a bigger centre, shortlist a clinic before you leave home: browse radiology clinics in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

This article is general information, not personal medical advice. Availability, Medicare eligibility, billing and preparation can change — confirm the specifics with your referrer and the clinic.

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