Payroll Tax Vs. You - the Road to Victory...

Unfortunately, there's been a delay in securing direct debit options for fees under the new arrangements to mitigate the impact of payroll tax. However, we HAVE been able to broaden the options and enable payments through BPay, PayPal and credit cards, rather than simply direct bank transfers:

The obvious benefits of course being accumulation of rewards program points, as well as broadening general options for payments - it seems unfair that patients are able to enjoy many of these and GPs are not!

Ausgrid Electrical Maintenance...

Given the age and state of the electrical subsystems in the Newtown area, Ausgrid informed us 2 weeks ago that the block from King Street to Mechanic Street will be shut down for essential maintenance on Wednesday 9th, 16th and 23rd August for roughly 12 hours on each of those dates. To that end, we'll be executing the following contingencies:

• On those three Wednesdays, CSMP will be NOT be open for any on-site services (including nursing services and DHM's on-site collections).
• Admin staff will be Working From Home (WFH), manning phones and managing general comms traffic as normal.
• GPs wishing to work-from-home on those dates will need to submit a 'Change of Routine' form. Likewise, GPs wishing NOT to work should do the same. (Please click HERE if you've not made your preferences known already!)
• Practice systems will be running on a diesel generator to power systems; I will be on-site to monitor this and ensure our remote systems all run smoothly for these dates.

Telehealth - Phone, Video, or Callback...

(Author's Note: using the autofill .tele from with 'Today's Notes' in BP is the fastest way of recording patient consent for telehealth!)

There have been a handful of updates for telehealth, but this 'quick guide' should give you the best idea of how to label telehealth appointments if being made by yourself!

There are THREE different icons for telehealth programmed into BP (from top to bottom: Phone Call, Telehealth Phone, and Telehealth Video):

Phone Call: used for GP call backs for results, or other GP initiated contact. This label triggers the request for patients to respond with a Y or N to assign benefit to their GP and consent to a phone consult - given this, this label should only be used if you intend to bulk bill!

Telehealth Phone: for telehealth phone consults at patient request (either at booking or confirmation).

Telehealth Video: as above, but for video.

Mental health Care PLans...again...

There have been a handful of rejected MHCP items billed in the past weeks, meaning that eligibility hasn't been confirmed at the time of billing. There are a couple of options for checking this:

• Use PRODA: using the eligibility item checker allows you to confirm if a patient is eligible for a new plan or review (please note: admin staff no longer have access to this function in PRODA).
• Check the Billing History: if you trust that the patient ONLY attends this practice and no others, verifying in the billing history can effectively check. A NEW MHCP can only be billed 365 days after the LAST MHCP billing; it is also not required for patients to access sessions if an MHCP has EVER been billed in their history.
• Check the My Health Record: from within the patient file, push CRTL + F9, then select Medicare Overview - All:

when the form opens, push CRTL+F and enter 'mental' to confirm when the last mental health item was billed.

Your Script List - Active Scripts...

One of the more anticipated changes to better manage patients on multiple medications and prescribers has been the introduction of the Active Scripts List, which patients will need to sign up for with their usual pharmacy.

To prepare for more broad usage, Best Practice has added more robust features within the clinical record to verify this either through the MySL OR the Prescription and Dispense View (located in the Current Rx list in a patient's BP file):

The system ensures that patients being cared for by multiple providers can avoid either contraindications or over-prescribing, and is more easily accessible than using the NSW SafeScripts system.

Coming Events...

Admin Meeting - Mon, 7th Aug (6:30-7:30pm)

Doctors' Committee - Thurs, 10th Aug (1-2:30pm)

Nurses' Meeting - Fri, 11th Aug (1-2pm)

Practice Lunch - Thurs, 17th Aug (1-2:30pm)