Dear Doctors and Health Care Workers
Feels a bit like ground hog day with telehealth billing chaos all over again. Angry patients erroneously thinking their telehealth consult would attract a Medicare rebate and being turned away, and providers scrambling to work out who they could and couldn’t bill to Medicare marked the tenor of the day. One practice reported all of their GPs have now refused to bulk bill anyone because they are too worried about making billing errors. Not great for anyone it would seem.
But just one question today from a nurse practitioner.
1. Do these changes to Covid telehealth item numbers also apply to Nurse Practitioners?
No.
Nurse practitioners can continue to bill their Covid telehealth items with no change in requirements. These changes that commenced today have been applied exclusively to GPs and OMPs.
It’s not over yet. There’s 10 weeks between now and 30 September during which the government will no doubt be formulating a plan for the future of telehealth, so hang in there.
Thanks everyone.
Margaret and the Synapse team.
COVID MBS items explainer and FAQs No. 52, 19 August 2020…Read more