AMA Submission to ANAO Performance Audit on the Expansion of Telehealth Services

The ANAO sought comment on how efficiently and effectively the Department of Health has ‘managed the expansion of telehealth services during and post the COVID-19 pandemic.’

Amongst other things, the AMA response highlighted that:

• The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, and given that GPs and hospitals have been dealing with an unusually high influenza case load on top of tens of thousands of new COVID-19 cases every day, the restrictions to telehealth services that came into effect on 1 July 2022 are unwarranted and place the health of both vulnerable patients and health practitioners at risk;
• Frequent and often last-minute changes to rules and requirements and ambiguity around some aspects of eligibility and exemptions often created confusion and a significant additional administrative workload for a general practice sector already reeling from the extra workload created by COVID-19 cases, and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines and boosters;
• The lack of any requirement that the patient had an existing relationship with a general practitioner in the first few months of the COVID-19 roll-out allowed the emergence of ‘pop-up’ and pharmacy telehealth models of telehealth which undermined the foundations of quality primary care, and blurred the important distinction between the prescribing and dispensing of medicines; and
• The initial bulk-billing requirement placed on GPs was inequitable, of questionable legality, had a significant impact on the viability of many general practices given the long-term impacts of the Medicare