Recording Telehealth Consultations

Use one of these encounter modes to record telehealth services.

Table 1. Telehealth service encounter modes
Encounter Mode Consultation Delivery Description Included in reports Automated patient status updates?
Telehealth Video Video conferencing Use to record services where the contact between the Communicare provider and the patient was using video conferencing. nKPI and OSR Yes
Telehealth - Provider Telephone or by another device such as a computer, with or without video Use to record remote telehealth consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic. nKPI and OSR Yes
Telehealth - Recipient Facilitator only Use where a consultation happened between a provider elsewhere and a patient, such as between a specialist and patient at a hospital, and the Communicare provider only facilitated the contact by providing a room and remote conferencing equipment. nKPI and OSR Yes
Telephone Telephone Use to record a clinical consultation performed over the telephone between the Communicare provider and the patient. nKPI and OSR Yes

For information about adding encounter places, see Editing Encounter Places.

Assignment of benefit for Telehealth

You need your patient’s agreement, or the agreement of a responsible person for the patient, to bulk bill telehealth items before Services Australia will pay the Medicare benefit.

You must either:
  • Get patient agreement in writing or by email for telehealth services. For more information, see https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/assignment-benefit-signature-requirements-and-exemptions?context=23366#email.
  • Get verbal agreement from your patient during the telehealth consultation and record that agreement.
    1. Ensure that the DB4 option is set in File > Organisation Maintenance.
    2. During the telehealth consultation, get verbal agreement from the patient for the assignment of benefit and explain that you'll fill in the Patient Signature field.
    3. On the Service Record > Medicare tab, in the Service Text field, type Patient verbally agreed to Telehealth.Example Service Record with required Service text
    4. The service text is added to the automatically generated Bulk Bill Assignment of Benefit (DB4) form.Example DB4 form for Telehealth assignment of benefit
    5. Send the DB4 form to your patient electronically.

For more information, see https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/changes-to-mbs-items-during-coronavirus-covid-19-response?context=20#requirements.

Pandemic response

During a pandemic, ensure that you log on to the Communicare User Portal weekly and take the following steps:
  • Download and install the latest MBS updates
  • Check for new ICPC-2 PLUS clinical items and advice on creating pathology requests
  • Download new reports.
    Note: Reports are generic and will only work if the descriptions of clinical items, test requests and incoming results are consistent with the logic explained in each report. For example, for COVID-19 lab test results must contain one of the following terms to be included in the reports: COVID, CORONAVIRUS or CORONA VIRUS. If you use these reports, ensure that you review them after items are used, tests are requested and results have arrived. Raise a support request if the data you require is not included in the report.