Welcome Synapse Network,
A huge year. A bigger one ahead. As 2025 comes to a close, we wanted to take a moment to say thank you and share just how extraordinary this year has been at Synapse.
Happy reading!
In this issue
 Consulting demand explosion |  How to Avoid the Medical Bill Rip Off! |  Operational excellence |  What's next for AIMAC |
Read on for these articles and more…
Consulting demand has exploded
This year, consulting work has gone through the roof!
Across government, insurers, hospitals, clinics and law firms, the message has landed: deep Medicare law expertise + real-world billing data + decades of operational experience matters.
The combined expertise of Dr Margaret Faux and Bruce Topperwien is now being recognised not just by health stakeholders, but increasingly by our legal colleagues, who understand the stakes when Medicare advice is wrong. That recognition increasingly extends to our role in providing expert evidence in legal proceedings, where we are asked to interpret Medicare item numbers, billing rules and the underlying statutory framework with precision and independence.
We’re proud to be the team others turn to when accuracy, defensibility and integrity really count.
If you need legally accurate advice about medical billing, please get in touch.
A book we didn’t expect to fly – but clearly had to exist
One of the most unexpected (and frankly joyful) moments of the year was the launch of our CEO, Dr Margaret Faux’s book: How to Avoid the Medical Bill Rip-Off!
Margaret genuinely didn’t expect many people to buy it. Instead, it became an Amazon bestseller almost immediately, and the response has been overwhelming.
Patients, lawyers, journalists and clinicians alike have told us the same thing: “This was badly needed.”
Since launch, Margaret has already been invited to participate in a podcast, with more media conversations on the horizon. That tells us something important – Australians are ready for honesty about medical billing, and they want practical answers.
Hospital billing & clinical coding – growing fast
Our clinical coding, hospital accommodation billing and revenue-cycle services continued their steady growth this year, with new hospitals onboarded and services scaled smoothly.
Hospitals are increasingly realising:
- We are the lowest-cost expert service in the market
- We reduce administrative overheads
- We manage medical billing, hospital billing and clinical coding end-to-end
- We do it accurately, lawfully and efficiently
If you want experts managing your entire revenue cycle – without the internal burden – look no further.
MBS Answers: trusted because it’s right
Our MBS Answers service continues to grow in popularity. We now host 175 legally vetted answers, with two new answers added every week, reflecting the real-world questions providers are grappling with.
Providers tell us they prefer MBS Answers to the government’s AskMBS service – and with good reason. We regularly identify and correct incorrect or incomplete advice coming from official channels.
Accuracy matters. Consequences are real. That’s why people come to Synapse.
For about the cost of a coffee a week, MBS Answers gives you legally correct answers to even the most complex medical billing questions – and the fact that clients consistently renew their subscriptions tells us they trust that our answers are right.
Operational excellence
This year saw record operational performance across Synapse, driven by disciplined execution, smarter systems, and a highly capable team.
- Operational performance hit record levels, with overall medical billing volumes growing by more than 30% while arrears remained under 1% across all functions – a direct result of the proven success of our inbuilt rules engine, which stops incorrect claims at the start.
- Technology and workflow innovation accelerated, including the rollout of the new “emergency stop” button, which alone saved hundreds of hours in reprocessing and prevented unnecessary refunds.
- Major efficiency gains were achieved, including a 95% reduction in paper cheques and ongoing automation that reduces administrative overheads and improves accuracy.
- Team capability and product maturity strengthened further, with staff building deeper expertise year-on-year, adapting to ongoing updates, and delivering consistently better outcomes for clients.
Our flagship MBS product: quietly building something big
Behind the scenes, our team has been working hard on our flagship MBS product, and this is where things get especially exciting.
In 2026, we’ll be introducing:
- AI-assisted workflows
- In-app prompts instead of email chains
- Faster, clearer, workflows embedded directly into your billing journey
Think: No more emails about referrers or other annoying details. Just updates and guidance in the palm of your hand.
This is about making Medicare billing simpler, calmer and more human – without ever compromising our core focus – compliance.
What’s next: AIMAC website revamp
Finally, we’re preparing a major revamp of the AIMAC website, bringing clearer structure, better navigation and more practical resources to support clinicians and organisations navigating billing and compliance.
There are new courses in the works too, so watch this space.
Thank you – and onward to 2026
To our clients, collaborators and supporters: thank you for trusting us, challenging us, and working with us to lift standards across the system.
2025 showed us something important – the market is ready for truth, precision and integrity.
We can’t wait to show you what 2026 brings.
Warmest wishes to you and your loved ones for a safe and happy festive season.
From Margaret and the Synapse team
enquiries@synapsemedical.com.au
