News
Longer phone consultations not part of telehealth extension
Medicare support for phone consultations longer than 20 minutes will end after 30 June, provoking a strong response from the RACGP.
The decision to remove patient rebates for longer telephone consultations will especially impact female GPs and their patients.
Patients will only be able to access Level C and D telephone rebates from the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) until the end of the financial year, despite the RACGP strongly advocating that they remain available to general practice.
The clarification comes after Health Minister Greg Hunt recently announced the scheme’s temporary extension until 31 December, in an effort to allow the Federal Government to work with peak bodies to ‘co-design permanent post-pandemic telehealth’.
However, RACGP President Dr Karen Price told newsGP she is disappointed the Government did not heed calls from the college to maintain MBS support for longer phone consultations in the extension and said vulnerable patients will be impacted most.
‘Many of the patients who benefit the most from telehealth are also the most disadvantaged when it comes to internet connectivity and reliability,’ she said.
‘By not allowing these patients to access fully-funded longer telephone consultations with their GP, we risk leaving them behind – not only during a once-in-a-generation pandemic, but for the years beyond.
‘I urge the Government to reconsider this position when drafting the framework of the long-awaited permanent solution to telehealth that this country desperately needs.’
Dr Price added that the decision will particularly impact female GPs, who on average provide longer consultations than their male counterparts, and their patients.
‘We believe this is a gender blind approach to policy,’ she said. ‘It does not take into account the impact this will have on women’s health services, mental health patients who require much more than a 15 minute consultation, and rural and remote women seeking assistance.
‘This is a blunt policy that does not recognise the complexity of the work that GPs do.’
An RACGP literature search conducted earlier this year found that while face-to-face consultations remain the ‘gold standard’, telehealth is a suitable alternative for many types of patient interactions, including for follow up care or chronic disease management for regular patients.
And while more research is require into the benefits of video over phone consultations, patient outcomes were generally comparable, with no consistent differences in patient mortality or patient satisfaction.
It also found that technical problems with video consultations are common and that infrastructure issues need to be addressed before the technology can become part of mainstream primary care.
These issues, combined with patient unfamiliarity and lack of comfort with using videoconferencing technology, have also meant that telephone consultations were used more frequently.
Aside from impacting on patient care, Dr Price said the decision to not fund longer telephone consultations will likely end up costing more money in the long-term.
‘From an economics perspective, we have argued strongly that while there has been a marginal increase in total general practice services following the introduction of telehealth, no one knows what the appropriate service level is during and post a pandemic,’ she said.
‘There have been well-documented increases in demand for mental health services, as well as some service shift from emergency departments to general practice, along with patients wanting to catch up on important appointments that were skipped last year as a result of the pandemic.
‘We know prevention is better than cure, in terms of both patient outcomes and healthcare costs, and that no other specialisation provides better preventive healthcare than general practice.
‘It’s time to support GPs so we can continue to help provide a brighter and healthier future for all Australians.’
The Department of Health has been contacted for comment.
Log in below to join the conversation.
MBS Medicare telehealth
newsGP weekly poll
Is it becoming more difficult to access specialist psychiatric support for patients with complex mental presentations?