The Australian Medical Association has welcomed the federal government's decision to implement a new temporary telehealth item (93716) for COVID anti-viral management and to reinstate pandemic leave but much more is needed to avoid negative health outcomes in the current COVID wave.
The AMA met with the Minister for Health, Mark Butler and we made it very clear that full access to telephone telehealth is critical during the pandemic and is a very reasonable way to conduct many medical consultations even outside a pandemic. AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid said while the new telehealth item was welcome there were many other telephone Medicare items dropped by the Government on 1 July which had left vulnerable people at risk.
"It is pleasing to see that the government is listening to medical and community concerns regarding these important COVID related measures. However, today's decisions don't address the needs of vulnerable Australians with other medical needs, who need access to longer consultations by telephone during this surging COVID pandemic," Dr Khorshid said.
"Vulnerable patients, including those who do not have access to high bandwidth internet and those who can't operate the necessary IT systems, are hit hardest by having the telephone items removed. These are exactly the people who we don't want to be unnecessarily sitting in doctors' waiting rooms.
"We will continue to push the minister and the government to reinstate the very reasonable COVID settings for telehealth until they are no longer needed. We also agreed with the minister to continue discussions around the long-term place for telehealth in our health system.
MBS Item 93716 allows for a phone attendance by a GP lasting at least 20 minutes for the assessment and management of a person with COVID‑19 infection of recent onset, for the purposes of determining the patient's eligibility for receiving a COVID-19 oral antiviral treatment. Item 93716 began on Tuesday 19 July and is expected to continue until 31 October 2022.
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