What's new?

May 2013

The Healthcare Identifiers Service Licensed Materials for the May 2013 release are now available.

January 2013

New eligibility requirements for the PIP eHealth Incentive start 1 February.

The Department of Human Services’ Compliance Program 2012—13 is now available.

The 2013 Medicare Teen Dental Plan voucher is valued up to $166.15

The Medicare Safety Net threshold figures for 2013 are now available.

Telehealth for residential aged care services

How does telehealth work?

A general practitioner (GP) treating a patient in a residential aged care faciity can refer the patient to a specialist for a video consultation. The specialist and the patient will be able to see and hear each other via video conferencing technology.

A GP, or another health professional with a Medicare provider number, can also be with the patient during the telehealth consultation to provide clinical support. This is called a ‘supported’ consultation.

Eligibility for telehealth

You will be eligible for this incentive if you:

  • provide care and accommodation to residents under the Aged Care Act 1997, and
  • hold a residential aged care service (RACS) ID.

To host telehealth video consultations you must also have:

  • access to appropriate telehealth equipment to allow both visual and audio contact, and
  • an appropriate room for a telehealth video consultation.

You can apply for the telehealth incentives after the first telehealth video consultation has been hosted at your facility.

Telehealth incentives

There are two incentive payments for eligible residential aged care services.

RACS On-Board incentive

This is a one-off, lump sum payment paid once per residential aged care service.

Telehealth Hosting Service Incentive

This is paid monthly, based on the number of video consultations you host at your facility. This includes:

  • supported—a health professional with a Medicare provider number was with the patient during the video consultation, and
  • unsupported—the patient was alone or with a non-Medicare eligible health professional during the video consultation.

How to register and claim

Once you host your first telehealth consultation, you can register by completing and lodging:

We will send you a written confirmation that we received your application and the details of your payment.

Claiming for subsequent monthly Telehealth Hosting Service Incentive payments

To claim for subsequent consultations you host at your facility, complete and lodge the

Making a claim

You need to make sure all questions are answered and the form is signed by the authorised representative.

If you don’t answer all the questions, we’ll send the form back to you.

Send the completed form to:

Mail:
Telehealth Incentive Program
Department of Human Services
GPO Box 2572
ADELAIDE SA 5001

Fax 1300 587 696

Payments

You’ll be paid with your monthly Aged Care payments into the bank account currently registered for these payments.

Record keeping

Each time your facility hosts a telehealth consultation you need to collect and store the:

  • date of consultation
  • patients name, Medicare card number and reference number, or Department of Veterans Affairs’ (DVA) card number
  • name of specialist who participated in telehealth consultation, and
  • name of supporting practitioner in attendance (if any).

Important: we may need this information at a later date for audit purposes. If you don’t have this information, you may need to pay back payments made to you. Future payments under this incentive may also be suspended or ceased.

More Information

For more information:

Email telehealth@humanservices.gov.au

Call 1800 222 032* (option 4) between 8.30 am and 5.00 pm, Monday to Friday, Australian Central Standard Time.

*Call charges may apply

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Last updated: 5 September, 2012