On 1 October 2026, surcharging card payments becomes illegal in Australia.

The RBA says the change is about transparency and lower costs for consumers. The problem for GP Practices is that the underlying card fee doesn't disappear. Someone still has to pay it.

And depending on how your money flows, that could be your Practice or your GPs.

Todd recently taught this live to our Project X Members. One Owner thought the impact would be tiny. Once she ran the numbers, she realised it affected seven or eight of her GPs.

In this episode, Todd and Sachin walk through what actually changes, where the cost can land, the maths behind the fee increases needed to break even, and how to handle the conversation with your team.

What You'll Get From This Episode

• Why removing the surcharge doesn't remove the fee, it just changes who pays it
• The maths behind a 1.5% surcharge becoming a 4.3% fee rise for your Practice, or 2.3% for the GP
• The hidden exposure many Owners haven't checked: GPs and tenants paying service fees or rent by card
• Why cash, bulk billing and direct bank transfers can create problems of their own
• Todd's four rules for navigating the change with your team

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Free Resource

Download The Surcharge Reset™ Playbook to work out what card collection is actually costing your Practice, compare the four ways to handle it, catch the edge cases most Owners will miss, and take the right conversation to your GPs before you make a change.

Download the Playbook here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gv0TZ_2KSnO8sV-5Hpc6U0wOVmzYltvW/view

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Connect with Todd: LinkedIn

Connect with Sachin: LinkedIn

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P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three ways we can help you grow your General Practice without burning out:

1. Get the Blueprint: Watch the free Practice Success Blueprint Training, the proven roadmap Owners use to grow profit, reclaim time, build trusted teams, and protect legacy. Watch Training Now

2. Sharpen Your Skills: Join one of our regular live workshops. Practical, proven tactics for recruitment, team performance, and profit tailored to Owners juggling it all. Click to Register

3. Ask Your Toughest Practice Question: Post your toughest Practice question in the SGPO Facebook Group and get answers from us + 1,000 Owners who 'get it.' Click here

Dr Annelies Geissler joined Robina Town Medical Centre and EZT Medical Centre as a contractor GP in 2008.

Sixteen years later, she's one of five equal Owners running both Gold Coast Practices, with around 25 GPs across the group.

Five Owners brings more experience and more capacity, but it also means more strong opinions in the room. Annelies breaks down how they choose the right people for ownership, split responsibility across two sites, and keep things moving when agreement doesn't come easily.

What You'll Get From This Episode

• What they look for before inviting a GP into ownership, and why clinical skill alone isn't enough
• How five equal Owners divide roles without losing shared accountability
• Why separate communication channels matter when you're running two Practices
• How treating decisions as experiments helps strong personalities move forward without endless debate
• Why they changed their fee structure to better recognise longer and more complex consults

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Connect with Todd: LinkedIn

Connect with Annelies Geissler: LinkedIn

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P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three ways we can help you grow your General Practice without burning out:

1. Get the Blueprint: Watch the free Practice Success Blueprint Training, the proven roadmap Owners use to grow profit, reclaim time, build trusted teams, and protect legacy. Watch Training Now

2. Sharpen Your Skills: Join one of our regular live workshops. Practical, proven tactics for recruitment, team performance, and profit tailored to Owners juggling it all. Click to Register

3. Ask Your Toughest Practice Question: Post your toughest Practice question in the SGPO Facebook Group and get answers from us + 1,000 Owners who 'get it.' Click here

When Dr Luke Ward started looking for a Practice, he wasn't only looking for somewhere to work.

He was looking for somewhere worth buying into.

That changed the questions he asked.

Who owned it? How long had the team stayed? Was the Practice still being built from scratch, or had it already proved it could run well without chaos?

Luke eventually joined Robina Town Medical Centre and EZT Medical Centre on the Gold Coast. Today, he's one of five equal Owners across the two Practices.

He breaks down how he assessed the opportunity, prepared himself for ownership, and what junior GPs should look for before buying into a Practice.

What You'll Get From This Episode

• The questions Luke asked before choosing which Practice to join
• Why long-term staff retention told him more about culture than a polished pitch ever could
• How he prepared for ownership before anyone had formally offered him a share
• What Practice Owners should look for before inviting the next GP into the ownership group

Resources Mentioned

• How to Grow a Multi Million Dollar Property Portfolio by Michael Yardney
• Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
• The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape
• The Armchair Guide to Property Investing podcast with Ben Kingsley and Bryce Holdaway
• Australian Institute of Company Directors course

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Connect with Todd: LinkedIn

Learn more about Luke Ward: Profile

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P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three ways we can help you grow your General Practice without burning out:

1. Get the Blueprint: Watch the free Practice Success Blueprint Training, the proven roadmap Owners use to grow profit, reclaim time, build trusted teams, and protect legacy. Watch Training Now

2. Sharpen Your Skills: Join one of our regular live workshops. Practical, proven tactics for recruitment, team performance, and profit tailored to Owners juggling it all. Click to Register

3. Ask Your Toughest Practice Question: Post your toughest Practice question in the SGPO Facebook Group and get answers from us + 1,000 Owners who 'get it.' Click here