Congratulations, Danielle...!

Danielle and Johan finally tied the knot! We wish them both the best (and our thanks for lurking in the clinical WhatsApp chat)! And one last thing...

We survived the Ausgrid debacle...

I didn't get the chance to thank everyone for their patience during our Wednesday closures while Mechanic Street and Hordern Street's line repairs, in particular Jo Downing for keeping an eye on everything on Day One to make sure it was all possible. For posterity's sake, this generator ran our phones, server and internet while battery backups kept our fridges running to ensure no stock loss (or reporting to Public Health), and despite it being stolen and replaced, we still managed to run limited telehealth and generally tread water to ensure patients could still make contact if needed.

Hopefully we will not have to do this again for many years, but it's nice to know we have some contingencies in place should we need them!

Medicare Changes...

There have been two significant changes for Medicare in past few weeks:

• The 12 month telehealth rule has been modified to give an exemption for mental health services (i.e. patients needing renewals, reviews or mental health consults will be able to access these items and rebates regardless of whether they have attended in the previous twelve months).
• The requirements for written consent for bulk-billed telehealth services. Primarily, this would appear to be to curb the number of results follow-up calls that are now billed rather than done without charge (as they were prior to telehealth). For details on workflow changes, read on!

TopBar...

As part of longer initiatives from both CESPHN regarding CDM as well as just patient care in general, we're reintroducing TopBar - a tool that gives you both a better overview of individual patient histories, but also fast access to HealthPathways and quick checks for patient eligibility for medicare items and gaps in clinical records. Click on the screenshots above to check it out, but myself and Julie will be happy to chat with you on getting the best out of software!

(NB: usernames passwords will be distributed through TEAMS!)

Practice Workflow Changes/Improvements...

To allow us to continue to provide the breadth of services we currently do via telehealth, we've implemented some changes and suggestions to the workflows for telehealth. It's worth noting that many of these began in July this year when the threat of some of these changes was made initially. Please use the image slider below to check the new autofills for Best Practice:

• Phone Call (.BBTELE) Firstly, the old style telephone will automatically send an SMS to the patient (see image 2) requesting a 'Y' reply for them to assign benefit to their GP (bulk-bill). These need to be entered into the appointment book in order for a response to be visible (either a GREEN dot if agreed, or a RED dot if not. PLEASE NOTE: these are not 'appointments', as they simply send an SMS indicated that '[your GP]' would like to contact you today. This is typically the 'follow-up of results' call. For patients that have requested a telehealth service (either at booking or at confirmation), the completed confirmation form suffices for written consent for the time being. Also note that if a patient does NOT respond, this cannot be billed.
• Telehealth PHONE (.TELE) - this is standard telephone telehealth service; patients either book intentionally or request this service at confirmation (swapping from in-person). Similarly with Telehealth VIDEO.
• Telehealth Phone/Video (.PHCON) - this is used for patients that have NOT had an in-person attendance in the last 12 months (excepting COVID positive, ATSI or mental health patients)

At present, our confirmation form provides 'consent' to some extent, although it will like be modified as this situation develops. Given the coming changes to incentive items as well as the Department's current resources, an audit for telehealth is very low on their list of priorities.

Nevertheless, I'll keep working to make sure our solutions and workflows are viable and compliant as this evolves.

MBS Item Eligibility

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.

Coming Events...

Admin Meeting - Mon, 9th October (6:30-7:30pm)

Doctors' Committee - Thurs, 12th October (1-2:30pm - meeting is on TEAMS)

Nurses' Meeting - Fri, 13th October (1-2pm)

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

CSMP Christmas!

Yes! It really IS that late in the year!

We'll be returning to Aqua Luna in Drummoyne this year on Sunday, 10th December from 12pm.

Please click on the button below to RSVP!