Just had a response to my enquiry:
Dear XXXXXXX,
We are writing in response to your recent enquiry, submitted to the Department of Health's AskMBS advice service on 9/07/2020.
Your enquiry has been considered and the following response is provided:The COVID-19 telehealth items are intended to substitute directly for standard attendance items and are subject to the same requirements. The personal attendance of the medical practitioner upon the patient is necessary before a ‘consultation’ may be regarded as a professional attendance. For the purposes of the COVID-19 telehealth items, the interaction between doctor and patient by video or telephone is regarded as personal attendance. In itemising an attendance covered by an MBS item which refers to a period of time, only that time during which a patient is receiving active attention should be counted.
A patient undertaking ‘remote respiratory smart-phone testing’ prior to their appointment with the doctor would not be eligible for a Medicare benefit as no personal attendance has occurred. No other MBS item would be appropriate for this task.
In relation to the time taken in recording details of the service, only clinical details recorded at the time of the attendance upon the patient count towards the time of attendance. It does not include information added at a later time, such as completing progress notes, speaking with nursing staff and/or patients’ families away from the patient. This also applies to information gathered or recorded prior to the attendance service.
Under MBS claiming arrangements, it is the responsibility of the health care professional providing the service to ensure that all of the requirements of the relevant MBS item, as detailed in the item descriptor and associated explanatory notes, have been met and the service provided is clinically relevant. A medical service is considered clinically relevant if it is generally accepted in the medical profession as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the patient.
It is the treating practitioner’s responsibility to consider the clinical circumstances of any services rendered and to determine the appropriate MBS item(s) to claim, if any. They should also exercise care to ensure that their conduct in relation to rendering the services cannot be characterised as inappropriate practice i.e. practice that a practitioner’s peers could reasonably conclude was unacceptable to the general body of their profession.
The full MBS item descriptors and associated explanatory notes can be searched for and viewed at www.mbsonline.gov.au
New temporary MBS telehealth and telephone consultation items have been made available to help reduce the risk of community transmission of COVID-19 and provide protection for patients and health care providers. The new items are available to all Medicare-eligible Australians until 30 September 2020 (when the arrangements will be reviewed). The list of telehealth services has continued to expand since 13 March with items now available to GPs, other medical practitioners, specialists and consultant physicians (including psychiatrists), nurse practitioners, participating midwives, allied health professionals and allied mental health providers. There are also new pathology items for COVID-19 testing and new bulk billing items for COVID-19 patients and those at risk of the virus.
Please see the link below to the most recent news and a list of the COVID-19 MBS items, noting that this is an evolving situation and it is possible that some of this information could change in response to circumstances.
Please refer to MBS Online at: www.mbsonline.gov.au/internet/mbsonline/publishing.nsf/Content/news
Should you require further clarification please contact
[email protected],
