Telehealth

Telehealth

The onset of emergencies and pandemics may mean that your practice isn’t physically accessible, or that patients may not have the capacity to visit your practice in person.

The RACGP’s Telehealth webpage provides comprehensive information on the following:

• Items for COVID-19 telehealth and phone services
• Guide to providing telephone and video consultations in general practice
• Telephone and video consultations in general practice: Flowcharts
• Telehealth consultations using an interpreter
• Telehealth and supervision: A guide for GPs in training and their supervisors
• Having a phone or video consultation with your regular GP: Information and support for patients
• The Medicare Benefits Schedule website has the most up to date information on telehealth, including updates to item numbers and fact sheets. It also includes information specific to natural disasters and other emergencies, including expansion of telehealth to support patients and GPs going through emergencies.

Exemptions to telehealth eligibility in areas of natural disaster or emergency

Patients in areas affected by natural disaster are now exempt from the existing relationship ("12-month rule") requirement for telehealth. This means that patients do not need to have had a face-to-face consult with a GP in the last 12 months in order to access MBS subsidised telehealth services.

A person is exempt from the “12-month rule” if, at the time of accessing a telehealth service, they are living in a local government area that is declared by a State or Territory Government to be a natural disaster area ⁴¹.