The former bulk billing practices owned by the failed Tristar Medical Group were told by the company's administrators to shut the doors.

It is a major blow to regional areas which historically struggle to access health services and retain doctors.

Tristar was one of the largest privately owned health service providers in Australia which offered bulk billing in many regional areas for the first time.

The clinics that closed included: West Wyalong and Kempsey in New South Wales; Avoca, Ararat, Dandenong and Grovedale in Victoria; Bruce in Canberra and three clinics in Darwin and Palmerston in the Northern Territory.

There is relief for 12 other regional communities in Victoria after The Family Doctor chain agreed in the past week to buy other clinics owned by Tristar.

They include Coffs Harbour in NSW plus Victoria's Horsham, Bendigo, Ballarat, Deer Park, Epping, Mildura, Sebastopol, Sunbury and Wodonga.

McGrathNichol took over the management of the group's 29 general practice medical centres back in May when the company was placed into voluntary administration owing creditors $9.3 million.

Administrator Matthew Caddy said: "It is regrettable that the clinics must close.

"In the absence of buyers for the clinics, which are loss-making, we have been left with no other option."

The Family Doctor chain announced last week it had entered into a binding agreement for the acquisition of 12 practices with the sale due to be completed on August 19.

Family Doctor is one of the largest operators of medical practices in Australia operating 60 clinics across five states,

The sale provides more than 80 per cent of the doctors and 60 per cent of employees within the Tristar Medical Group the opportunity to maintain their positions and remain in place to service local communities.

The collapse of Tristar has been partly blamed on its business model.

But changes to government regulations on skilled migration policies and the ongoing Medicare rebate freeze has long been blamed for making it difficult to attract doctors to regional areas.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia has warned rural doctors are also being targeted for recruitment to large regional and city locations from the federal government's change to medical workforce policy came into effect.

The government has in the past month redefined an area's "priority" status to give overseas doctors the ability to shift to country Australia.

All GP catchments in the Modified Monash Model 2 areas immediately have priority status.

MMM2 are those areas in, or within 20km distance, of a town with a population greater than 50,000.

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This means regional cities and outer metro areas, as well as rural and remote parts of the country have priority status, allowing them to recruit from an expanded pool of doctors.

The RDAA says they are not only hearing reports of doctors already resigning, but are seeing ads by recruitment agencies and large corporate medical practices seeking Overseas Trained Doctors to relocate.

RDAA president Dr Megan Belot said the policy change will see many rural and remote communities left without care.

"As quickly as it was announced, city medical practices started targeting doctors in rural areas to move to cities including Canberra, Hobart, Sunshine Coast and Wollongong," she said.

"At RDAA we had a direct call from a recruitment agent looking to reach rural doctors with their job advert for positions in Canberra.

"This is exactly what we warned Minister for Health, Mark Butler, of before the election and we are horrified to now see it evolving exactly as we were concerned that it would."