TELEHEALTH

From 1 July 2011, Medicare rebates and financial incentives have been available for telehealth services under the Connecting Health Services with the Future initiative. These Medicare rebates are available across the full range of medical specialties and are for patient-end clinical support provided by general practitioners (GPs) or by practice nurses/registered Aboriginal health workers on behalf of a GP as well as specialist-end services provided by a specialist with a Medicare provider number. The rebates and related one-off incentive payments acknowledge the additional complexity in providing patients with online access to their specialists. The consultations for which MBS rebates apply are available to patients from remote, regional and outer metropolitan areas as well as patients of residential aged care facilities or Aboriginal medical services anywhere in Australia.

For information on the current Telehealth MBS Item Numbers, please see the following links:

BROCHURES 

RACGP TELEHEALTH IMPLEMENTATION GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS
The standards are an addendum to the RACGP Standards for general practices (4th edition) and include additional explanatory material for existing criteria which have particular significance for safety and quality in a telehealth context.