DVA pays for your health care through your Veteran Card. A Gold Card covers clinically necessary treatment for all conditions. A White Card covers your accepted conditions and, if you're eligible, all mental health conditions, cancer and pulmonary tuberculosis. An Orange Card covers prescription medicines only. You see ordinary GPs, specialists and hospitals: providers who accept your card bill DVA directly and can't charge you a gap fee.
Find the right DVA health program
| If you need | Where to start | More detail |
|---|---|---|
| A GP or specialist | Any GP who accepts your card; a GP referral for a specialist | Below |
| Hospital treatment | Your doctor admits you to a public or DVA-contracted private hospital | Below |
| Physio, psychology, podiatry or dental | A GP referral for most allied health; book dental directly | Allied health and dental |
| Mental health treatment or counselling | Your GP, or Open Arms on 1800 011 046 | Mental health treatment |
| Help to stop drinking or using drugs | Your GP or Open Arms | Alcohol and drug treatment |
| Glasses or an eye test | An optometrist registered as a DVA provider | Below |
| Hearing aids or tinnitus help | A Hearing Services Program provider | Below |
| Nursing or personal care at home | A referral from your GP or hospital | Community nursing |
| Ongoing care for chronic conditions | Your GP | Coordinated Veterans' Care |
| Aids, equipment or home modifications | Your GP or occupational therapist | Aids and equipment (RAP) |
| A lift or travel costs to appointments | DVA or MyService | Transport |
| Treatment for a common condition while a claim is assessed | Lodge the claim, then take DVA's form to your GP | PAMT |
| Help with housework or personal care | DVA's assessment agency on 1300 550 450 | Help at home |
Some treatment needs DVA's approval first, which your provider arranges. Read about referrals and prior approval.
Who can get DVA-funded treatment
- Gold Card holders, for all conditions. Read about the Gold Card.
- White Card holders, for accepted conditions. Read about the White Card.
- Anyone with one day of continuous full-time ADF service, for any mental health condition, without a claim.
- Veterans with certain service, such as operational or peacekeeping service, for cancer and pulmonary tuberculosis.
Cards work anywhere in Australia but not overseas. Overseas, DVA can only cover treatment of your accepted conditions.
Seeing a GP or specialist
Before your appointment, check that the GP will accept your Veteran Card for full payment and bill DVA directly. Show your card at the start of the appointment. To see a specialist you need a GP referral, and the same check applies. If you can't find a doctor near you who accepts the card, DVA may be able to help you find one.
Anyone who has served in the ADF can have a One-Off Veteran Health Check with their GP at any time after leaving, with a Medicare rebate. If you left after 30 June 2019, DVA fully funds an Annual Veteran Health Check for your first five years.
Read DVA's information on GP and specialist services
Hospital care
DVA has arrangements with every state and territory for emergency, admitted and outpatient care in public hospitals, and contracts with nearly 550 private hospitals and day procedure centres. You don't need DVA's approval to be admitted to a public hospital or a contracted private one. Your doctor must get approval first for a private hospital without a DVA contract. DVA pays whether you're in a shared or private room, and you shouldn't be charged for medicines while admitted. Contracted private hospitals have a Veteran Liaison Officer who supports you and your family during your stay.
Read DVA's hospital services information
Medicines
Show your card to your doctor, so they prescribe through the Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and to the pharmacy. You pay $7.70 for each item until you reach the Safety Net threshold for the year. If you don't show your card, you may pay more and the item may not count towards the threshold.
Glasses and hearing aids
With a Gold Card, or a White Card for an accepted condition that affects your vision, you can see an optometrist every 3 years if you're under 65 or every year if you're 65 or over. DVA pays for one pair of multifocal glasses, or one pair each of reading and distance glasses, every 2 years. You pay extra only if you choose frames or lenses outside DVA's range.
Hearing aids come through the Australian Government's Hearing Services Program for Gold Card holders and White Card holders with accepted hearing loss or tinnitus. Tell the provider you have a Veteran Card and don't pay for a device before approval: DVA doesn't reimburse devices you've already bought. Find a provider on 1800 500 726.
If you get a bill
Don't pay a bill for treatment your card covers; contact DVA on 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372). If you choose to be treated as a Medicare or private patient, DVA won't pay for that service.
Rules that are easy to miss
If you have qualifying service under the VEA or warlike service under the MRCA, and you get a Disability Compensation Payment, MRCA permanent impairment compensation or have an accepted DRCA condition, DVA may refund part of your prescription costs each year. The Veterans' Pharmaceutical Reimbursement Scheme pays you the difference between the co-payments you made (up to the Safety Net threshold) and the pharmaceutical allowance included in your supplement. You don't claim it. DVA works it out from pharmacy records and pays it in March. It isn't taxed. It only counts scripts where you showed your Veteran Card, and for a White Card only medicines for your accepted conditions.
If DVA accepts a condition, you can ask it to reimburse reasonable treatment, medicines and aids for that condition that you paid for yourself between the accepted date of onset and the date DVA told you of its decision. Use DVA's Medical Expenses Privately Incurred (MEPI) webform or form D1181, and attach itemised receipts and any Medicare or health fund statements, because DVA only pays the part they didn't. With a White Card, include a referral or a letter from your doctor showing the treatment was for the accepted condition. Once you have your card, DVA generally won't reimburse repeat visits to a provider who doesn't accept it.
In an emergency you can be taken to the nearest hospital without DVA's approval. If it's a private hospital that doesn't have a DVA contract, you, your family or the hospital should tell DVA on 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372) on the first working day after you're admitted. The same applies after an emergency ambulance. DVA doesn't pay hospital costs that WorkCover or motor accident (CTP) insurance should cover.
If you stay in hospital for more than 35 days in a row and your doctor doesn't certify that you still need acute care, or your doctor agrees earlier that you no longer need it, you become a nursing-home-type patient. From then on DVA doesn't pay the daily patient contribution the hospital charges, unless you're a former prisoner of war or Victoria Cross recipient. This often happens while someone is waiting for an aged care place, so ask the hospital about the fee.
After a hospital stay, DVA can pay for up to 21 days a financial year of convalescent care in a facility such as an aged care home, with its approval first. It's for recovery, not for waiting for a permanent aged care place, rehabilitation or respite. Respite can't start straight from a hospital bed: you need to have gone home first.
Before you travel overseas, tell DVA through MyService or on 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372). DVA only pays for treatment of accepted conditions overseas, generally up to what it would cost in Australia, and it can refuse if it wasn't told before you left. Non-liability health care, such as White Card mental health cover, and PAMT don't work overseas, and DVA won't pay if getting treatment was a main reason for the trip. Take out travel insurance for everything else. Gold Card holders can claim the cost of travel vaccinations given in Australia.
The co-payment covers the cheapest brand of each medicine. If you or your doctor choose a more expensive brand, you pay the difference, and you still pay it after you reach the Safety Net. Your family's scripts count towards the same Safety Net total. Ask your pharmacist for a Prescription Record Form so you can see when you reach it, because keeping track is up to you.
Does DVA pay for medicinal cannabis?
Sometimes, but only through the Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and your doctor has to get DVA's approval before prescribing. DVA considers it for chronic pain, chemotherapy nausea, palliative care, wasting from chronic illness, spasticity from neurological conditions and refractory childhood epilepsy, where DVA already covers treatment of the condition and standard treatments haven't worked. It doesn't fund medicinal cannabis for mental health conditions. You pay the usual co-payment for each supply. DVA pays travel only to the nearest approved prescriber, and it generally won't refund products bought without approval.
Common questions
Are there veterans' hospitals in Australia?
Not any more. The Repatriation General Hospitals were handed over to state health systems in the 1980s and 1990s. Today DVA pays for your care in public hospitals and in DVA-contracted private hospitals.
Does DVA have its own doctors?
No. You see a GP or specialist who accepts your Veteran Card. If you can't find one, contact DVA and it may help you find a provider nearby.
Checked against DVA's website on 25 September 2026.