Coronavirus: Subsidised telehealth to get a $2bn boost

Australians will receive Medicare-subsidised telehealth services and home medicine deliveries for another six months under a $2bn COVID-19 package.

GP Danielle McMullen in her Sydney practice. Picture: Adam Yip

Australians will receive Medicare-subsidised telehealth services and home medicine deliveries for another six months under a $2bn COVID-19 package, taking the Morrison government’s health response spend to more than $16.5bn since March.

Scott Morrison’s pre-budget health boost will also support extra personal protective equipment for the National Medical Stockpile, 148 GP-led respiratory clinics, free COVID-19 pathology tests and extra funding for hospitals.

The telehealth extension, which will run until March 31, provides Australians access to care in their homes from GPs, nurses, midwives and mental health ­professionals.

The Australian this week revealed health experts were pressuring the government to extend bulk-billed telehealth services due to expire on September 30.

New government data shows between March and September 15, the COVID-19 Medicare and Primary Care Telehealth program provided more than 30 million services to more than 10 million ­patients, with $1.55bn paid out in health benefits.

The top five telehealth services were phone calls with GPs and conferences with specialists and physicians. Almost one million Australians accessed the Home Medicines Services program between March and July 31.

The Prime Minister — who will brief premiers and chief ministers on the health package at a national cabinet meeting on Friday — said the government was committed to providing long-term critical care and support for Australians to “protect lives and livelihoods”.

“By providing telehealth and home delivery medicine services, we are reducing the risk of exposure of COVID-19 in the community while also supporting people in isolation to get the care they need,” Mr Morrison said.

The extra health funding pledge builds on the commonwealth’s 50-50 partnership with state and territory leaders, who will receive a national cabinet epidemiological update from acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly on Friday.

Mr Morrison said the extra support was for mental health service “delivered over the phone by trained specialists and GPs … As we continue to suppress COVID-19 while continuing to open our economy up, Australians can be reassured we have the world’s best medical support in place to protect their health.”

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the commonwealth health funding response had brought forward a “10-year plan on telehealth within 10 days”.

“As a consequence, over 30 million consultations protected the health and wellbeing of Australians, and protected our health workers and the viability of their practices,” he said.

The October 6 budget is expected to feature extra major health funding, with the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee recommending ongoing resources were required to combat future COVID-19 outbreaks.

Under ongoing coronavirus health support, Australians will have access to bulk-billed COVID-19 tests under Medicare, with aged-care residents and staff receiving priority access to rapid testing.

Labor had been pushing for an extension of telehealth consultations after a parliamentary committee recommended Medicare telehealth items “be made a permanent feature of the Australian healthcare system”.