Bulletin - April, 2024
Fee Updates for 1st July, 2024
Following April's Doctors' Committee meeting, the fees for the 2025FY can be viewed by clicking here, with a handful of additional caveats:
- Optional Fees for GP use will also be advertised for skin checks and biopsies.
- Medical Terminations of Pregnancy (MTOP) will now also have a set fee for discretionary use.
As the general consultation fees are publicly advertised, should any variations be applied, these must be discussed with the patient prior to billing.
Medicare Changes...
MyMedicare Changes
- From 1st Feb, patients registered for MyMedicare are exempt from the 12 month telehealth rule, as registrations constitute an 'existing therapeutic relationship'.
- From 1st Nov, 2024, patients will need to be registered for MyMedicare in order for them have chronic disease management to be carried out by their GP. Please discuss this patients where appropriate, and request admin staff to register patients when their attendance has concluded.
MBS Item Descriptions
- Please be advised that MBS descriptors for attendances level A-E include mandated times to meet billing requirements; work done after the patient has departed (such as referrals or additional notes) CANNOT contribute to the time calculation for billing. Similarly, co-billing of items (such as a mental health consult with a general attendance) must meet the combined time requirements for both items.
Practice Workflow Changes/Improvements...
'Just Call for results': patients should be encouraged to use the CSMP Contact portal to follow-up on results. These requests are directed to nursing staff to triage and action, and then forwarded to the GP should results not be checked/marked as 'doctor to advise'. Please avoid asking patients to 'call' for their results.
Online Rx/Referral requests: as we require pre-payment for requests made outside of consult, until payments are confirmed we do not forward requests. When patients indicate that they are either unable or unwilling to make a pre-payment, we then attempt to book an appointment where possible. To complete the process, please remember to contact admin if either a payment needs to be recorded or a refund issued!
BP Autofills: While not (strictly) new, the following are BP autofills to hopefully improve workflows:
- .CTG - Closing The Gap autofill (questions, registration requirements, etc.)
- .MYMEDICARE - registration requirements for patients for MyMedicare.
- .BBTELE - used for the rotary phone 'Phone Call' icon for results follow-up or calls to patient (NB: patients MUST respond to the SMS with a 'Y' to provide 'written consent' and assign benefit, otherwise billing does not meet Medicare requirements).
- .TIS - translator present (phone/in person)
- .STUDENT - consent requirements for the presence of a medical student during consult.
Coming Events...
Flu Clinics - we will again be conducting Flu Clinics for 2024, contingent on the arrival of our govt and private stock! The setup will be:
- Clinics will be done on 1-2 days across 3 weeks
- GPs will volunteer a 'half-session' (where able), avoiding a single GP being rostered for a day of flu vaccinations. GPs can volunteer as few or as many sessions as they wish!
- More info to come once stocks arrive!
