Eye Tests at Home in Australia: Bulk Billed Home Optometry

Where can I find an optometrist who does home visits?

Every practising optometrist appears on the public AHPRA register, but the register does not show who travels (AHPRA, 2026). Mobile optometry is a small corner of the profession, organised around area rounds rather than a shopfront. The ranked list above narrows the field to optometrists offering home visits with measured response times and current coverage on the Carevo platform.

What is home visit optometry?

Home visit optometry is a full eye examination, including visual acuity testing, glaucoma screening and glasses prescription, delivered by an AHPRA-registered optometrist using portable equipment at a person’s home instead of in a clinic. Standard consultations attract a Medicare Benefits Schedule rebate (e.g. MBS item 10910), per Services Australia 2025.

A properly equipped mobile optometrist carries portable versions of the clinic instruments: a trial lens set for refraction, a tonometer for eye pressure, and a handheld ophthalmoscope or retinal camera. Glaucoma screening, cataract checks and retinal examination can all happen in a lounge room, and glasses can be fitted and adjusted on the spot.

For people in Australia who cannot easily get to a clinic, a home visit removes the transport, parking and waiting-room barriers that stop many older people and people with disability from getting their eyes checked at all.

How to choose a provider from the list above

The list above is ranked using the criteria explained in the methodology above it. Four checks matter for mobile optometry.

Equipment. Confirm the optometrist carries portable equipment for a full exam rather than a basic sight check.

Coverage. Mobile optometry rounds are usually planned by area, so ask whether they already cover Australia and how often the round returns, since glasses sometimes need adjusting after delivery.

Dispensing. An optometrist who can dispense or order glasses directly, rather than only writing a prescription, saves a second trip.

Carevo measures whether a provider accepts an enquiry, not when care starts or a practitioner contacts you. Confirm current capacity and a start date directly. How Carevo measures enquiry acceptance.

Are eye tests at home bulk billed under Medicare?

Often, yes. Medicare covers optometry consultations wherever they happen, and the Schedule includes items for visits to a person’s home or residential aged care (Services Australia, 2025). Many mobile optometrists bulk bill home and aged care visits, particularly for pension and concession card holders; others charge a private fee with the rebate claimed back. Medicare funds a full eye examination once every three years for people under 65 and once a year from 65, with extra visits covered when there is a clinical reason such as diabetes or a sudden change in vision. The exam is rebated but glasses are not, though most states run spectacle subsidy schemes for concession card holders.

Who qualifies for a home visit, and how is it funded?

Home optometry suits people who cannot easily reach a clinic due to mobility limits, frailty or disability, including older Australians and NDIS participants. The eye test itself is a Medicare service, not an NDIS or Support at Home line item. Low vision aids such as magnifiers can be funded through the NDIS Assistive Technology budget when linked to a participant’s disability, per the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27.

In residential aged care the same Medicare arrangements apply, and many mobile optometrists run regular facility rounds. Families do not have to wait for the facility to organise one: you can book directly and the optometrist coordinates with care staff on the day.

An undiagnosed vision problem often shows up first as something else: more falls, giving up reading or hobbies, or trouble recognising faces. If any of these have changed recently for someone in Australia, an eye test is a cheap first step before assuming the cause is cognitive.

Can an optometrist check for diabetic eye disease at home?

Yes. Diabetic retinopathy damages the retina without symptoms in its early stages, which is why Australian guidelines recommend an eye examination at least every two years for everyone with diabetes, and more often once changes are found. A mobile optometrist with a portable retinal camera can do this screening at home, report the result to the GP, and refer to an ophthalmologist when treatment is needed. If travel is the reason checks have lapsed, pairing the exam with diabetes education at home deals with both halves of the problem.

How does poor vision affect falls risk?

Vision is one of the systems the body relies on for balance, and it is the easiest one to fix. Undercorrected prescriptions, cataracts and reduced contrast sensitivity all make trips and missteps more likely, and vision problems are an established contributor to falls in older people. Two practical points are worth raising at the exam: large prescription changes take time to adapt to, so be careful on stairs with brand-new glasses, and multifocal lenses can blur step edges, which is why some optometrists suggest separate single-vision glasses for walking outdoors. An eye test is one of the cheapest items on a falls prevention checklist; an occupational therapist can cover the rest of the home.

What support is available for someone with low vision?

When glasses can no longer restore useful vision, the optometrist’s job shifts from correction to referral. A low vision assessment measures what vision remains and matches it to aids: magnifiers, task lighting, high-contrast and talking household items, and screen magnification. Specialist low vision rehabilitation services then train the skills that keep people independent, and much of that rehabilitation in Australia is delivered by orthoptists, compared on the home orthoptics page. For everyday equipment that works around low vision in the kitchen and bathroom, see daily living and kitchen aids; where memory loss and low vision overlap, the labelling and prompting products on the cognitive support and memory aids page help with both.

Availability on Carevo

Carevo lists AHPRA-registered optometrists offering home visits alongside 34,600 providers on the platform across 8,918 suburbs, with records updated 2026-08-26. For broader in-home allied health options including OT and physiotherapy, see allied health services.

Is a home eye test bulk billed?

Usually yes, for the examination itself. Medicare covers a comprehensive eye examination by an optometrist, and most visiting optometrists bulk bill it, meaning no out-of-pocket cost for the test (Services Australia).

The frequency rules are what catch people out. Medicare funds a comprehensive examination once every three years for people under 65, and once a year for people 65 and over. Anyone can be tested sooner where there is a clinical reason such as diabetes, a sudden change in vision, or an eye condition under monitoring, and the optometrist records why.

What Medicare does not cover is the glasses. Frames and lenses are a separate cost, and each state and territory runs its own spectacle subsidy scheme with different eligibility, usually tied to a concession card. Ask the optometrist which scheme applies in your state before ordering, because the subsidy is generally claimed at the point of supply rather than reimbursed afterwards.

Who can get an optometrist to visit at home?

Visiting optometry exists for people who cannot reasonably get to a practice. In practice that means people with limited mobility, people living with dementia who find an unfamiliar clinic distressing, residents of aged care homes, and people whose disability makes clinic attendance impractical.

Providers generally cover residential aged care facilities on a scheduled rotation, and private homes on request where the postcode is serviced. Coverage is thinner outside capital cities, so confirm the practitioner travels to your address before booking rather than assuming statewide coverage.

The examination itself is close to a clinic examination. Portable equipment covers visual acuity, refraction, eye pressure and retinal imaging, and the optometrist reports to your GP. Where a finding needs equipment that cannot travel, or suggests cataract, glaucoma or macular degeneration, the optometrist refers to an ophthalmologist in the usual way.

How this page is compiled

The provider rankings and figures on this page come from Carevo platform records, including provider registrations, measured response times and coverage, together with the cited official sources. Carevo is an Australian platform that connects families with NDIS and aged care providers. Carevo does not deliver care itself.

Funding sources and checks

Check the current NDIA pricing arrangements and Support at Home program rules for the proposed service. Funding depends on the approved support and available budget; a Carevo listing is not approval. Confirm availability and a start date directly with the provider.