Telehealth Medicare Rebate

Changes to Financial Incentives

All telehealth on-boarding incentives ceased on 30 June 2014

The On-Board Incentive for telehealth was paid in two instalments. The first paid after the first valid telehealth MBS claim processed by the Department of Human Services (DHS) and the second paid after the tenth valid telehealth MBS claim processed by DHS ( see attached documents for details)

Telehealth Eligible Areas

Telehealth eligibility is determined according to the Australian Standard Geographical Classification Remoteness Area (ASGC-RA) classifications. Medicare Benefit Schedule (MBS) benefits will only be available for services provided to patients outside of RA1 - Major Cities. This does not affect residents of Aged Care facilities or patients of eligible Aboriginal Medical Services or eligible Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services who are exempt from geographical requirements.

Addition of a minimum distance requirement

On 1 November 2012, the MBS telehealth items were amended to require that the patient and remote specialist be at least 15 kilometres apart.

The minimum distance requirement does not apply to residents of Aged Care Facilities or patients of an Aboriginal Medical Service.

See the TeleHealth page of the MBS Online website for more details

Fact sheets

1a Summary TeleHealth MBS items for information.pdf

1b TeleHealth Program Guidelines.pdf

Static Maps of Telehealth Eligible Service Areas(From Jan 2013)

How to generate Medicare Statistics for MBS Telehealth Items

Links

MBS Online TeleHealth page