We're thrilled to welcome Dr Ben Tong to CSMP this month!

In his own words, "Ben was born in Sydney and moved to Newcastle to study medicine. After graduating from the University of Newcastle in 2016, Ben loved Newcastle so much that he stayed on to work and complete his junior doctor and GP training. Upon finishing GP training in 2022, Ben and his wife moved to Sydney to study at bible college. 

Ben enjoys many aspects of general practice, particularly preventative health and mental health. He also has a developing interest in diabetes and cardiovascular health. Ben has previously completed the Sydney Child Health Program. 

Outside of work, Ben enjoys the beach, good food, tennis, and board games and is regularly involved with his church and bible college community."

Ben joins us on Tuesdays and Fridays!

Some Shortcuts...

Necessity being the mother of invention, we've made some additional shortcuts to help support smooth running of the flu clinics (and flu vaccinations in general) this year:

• .FLU - auto populates both consent and vaccine information for the private flu vaccine, for use either in flu clinics or simply as a matter of course in consult!
• .FREEFLU - autopopulates both consent and vaccine information for the government flu vaccines.

In addition to these autofills, we also added the following:

• .TELE - records consent for patient's telehealth consultations (while not a requirement, not a bad habit to get into if changes do occur down the track!).
• .PHCON - records consent for telehealth if the patient has not attended in the last 12 months.
• .STUDENT - records verbal consent for the presence of a medical student in consult.

Admin and clinical teams are working on other autofills that may benefit clinicians more broadly, so if you have a suggestion for either a new autofill or an update for BP, please let me know!

On the subject of consent, when (if) sending results to patients either via email or SMS, please make sure the required box is ticked in their demographics - to access this, double-click on their name when in file, and click on Comms Consent, then check that ALL boxes are ticked!

Introducing Vertuo...

In an attempt to make the pathology process clearer, you'll notice a blue line leading from the auto door directly to the number tray for pathology. If you're sending patients down for bloods or sample drop-off, please ask them to simply 'follow the blue line' to either drop off samples or collect a number!

Mental Health Care plans (how better access is MEANT to work)...

Earlier in the year, you'll remember I gave some information on how Mental Health Care Plans (2715/2717 and telehealth equivalents) are meant to operate. Hopefully this can give some further clarity, especially given that a number of patients will now have passed their sixth session:

• MHCPs do NOT expire: if a patient has had a 2715 at ANY point, a new one is only 'needed' if you feel that their clinical or psychological circumstances have changed, in which case - a new plan is warranted. In these cases, a new plan can be done 12 months from the previous one.
• On the 1st January, a patient's sessions 'reset', meaning they are able to access 6 sessions for that calendar year. All that is required at this visit after 1st Jan is a new referral letter for '6 sessions for this calendar year under Better Access Mental Health'.
• Once those 6 sessions have been 'used', patients should return to their GP to request another referral letter, this time for a further 4 sessions. Please note that a 2712 does NOT need to be billed at this time for these sessions to become accessible, but given the work required to properly review a plan, the remuneration is higher for a 2712 than it would be for a 23.
• In total, a patient is able to access 10 sessions within a calendar year.

When accessing PRODA to verify a patient's eligibility for mental health items, you'll need to choose each one separately (i.e. don't search for 2712/2715 together). PRODA assumes you are asking if you are able to bill all items at the one attendance; you need to check eligibility for a 2712 or 2715 one at a time!

For more information, please feel free to check the Services Australia website!

Brace yourselves - TYRO Is coming...

If you've received an email from TYRO asking you to either download the app or access their portal, this isn't a scam - this is part of the first stage of the changes being implemented to minimise the impact of recent payroll tax decisions in both the NSW High Court and Court of Appeals.

TYRO provide the EFTPOS terminals that most health providers use for two reasons:

• TYRO's merchant fees are lower than most direct to bank terminals.
• TYRO's terminals are one of only two approved for Medicare EasyClaim (the process by which we're able to issue instant rebates to patients after settling accounts).

That being said, TYRO still charges a merchant fee for transactions using their terminals - until now, these fees have been absorbed by CSMP. However, with the changes in cash flow meaning that payments will now be made directly to GPs rather than held in trust, these fees would now be paid by practitioners. Having said this, the terminals allow us to activate card surcharges to offset that merchant transaction fee. It is our plan to activate the surcharge settings to pass that fee to patients when they are privately billed to avoid any further infractions on your practice. While the fee is minimal per patient, it would obviously add up for practitioners, which is why we intend to activate the surcharges.

Harry PRODA and the Delegate Hallows...

The second stage of the changes being implemented require you to delegate your PRODA access so your individual bank accounts can be updated at the appropriate time. To do this, you'll need to log into PRODA:

• Once logged in, do NOT click on the Health Professional Online Services button.
• In the top right corner, click on the word Profile - this will then show you your RA number (needed for delegation).
• Once you have this number, please send it to me in Teams.
• I'll contact you once the next steps is needed, which will be to access Health Professional Online Services, click on My Details, then My Delegates, and APPROVE:

Coming Events...

• AWAY! - 17th to 23rd May - I'll be interstate for a few days; contactable through Teams should you need me!