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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 48(1)

Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) Review Advisory Committee post-implementation review of MBS telehealth items: abolition of initial telehealth consultations for non-general practitioner specialists

Jeffrey C. L. Looi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3351-6911 A B * , Stephen Allison B C , Tarun Bastiampillai B C D , Steve Kisely B E F and William Pring G H
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, The Australian National University School of Medicine and Psychology, Canberra Hospital, Building 4, Level 2, PO Box 11, Garran, Canberra, ACT 2605, Australia.

B Consortium of Australian-Academic Psychiatrists for Independent Policy and Research Analysis (CAPIPRA), Canberra, ACT, Australia.

C College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

D Department of Psychiatry, Monash University, Wellington Road, Clayton, Vic., Australia.

E School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.

F Departments of Psychiatry, Community Health and Epidemiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.

G Delmont Private Hospital, Glen Iris, Vic., Australia.

H Department of Psychiatry, Monash University, Clayton, Vic., Australia.

* Correspondence to: jeffrey.looi@anu.edu.au

Australian Health Review 48(1) 34-36 https://doi.org/10.1071/AH23237
Submitted: 7 November 2023  Accepted: 5 January 2024  Published: 22 January 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of AHHA.

Abstract

In 2022, the Australian Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care commissioned the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) Review Advisory Committee (MRAC) to conduct a post-implementation review of MBS telehealth services, including settings of video and telephone consultations. The MRAC has made a series of administrative recommendations for telehealth practice that appear at cross-purposes to the evidence-base on medical consultations and that would limit patient access to medical specialist assessment in Australia. These recommendations particularly underestimate the role of telehealth in rural and remote Australia and did not take into account high patient satisfaction with telehealth assessment and treatment during the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. They also appear to contradict the Medical Board of Australia’s guidance on telehealth. On this basis, the recommendations for telehealth principles and abolition of reimbursement for telehealth for all initial non-general practitioner medical specialist consultations should be withdrawn.

Keywords: clinical pathways, e-health, health funding and financing, Medicare Benefits Schedule, quality and safety, rural and remote health, telehealth, urgent care.

References

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