More than 100 million telehealth services have now been delivered across the country in the two years since the services were introduced by the Department of Health.
Minister for Health and Aged Care, Greg Hunt said universal telehealth, initially introduced as a temporary initiative in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, was the most significant reform to Medicare since it began.
“Between 13 March 2020 and 16 March 2022, over 100 million telehealth services were delivered to around 17 million Australians across the country,” Mr Hunt said.
“More than $5 billion in Medicare benefits has been paid, and more than 92,000 medical practitioners have now used telehealth services to support their patients,” he said.
“Of these services, GPs have provided almost 83 million, specialists almost 11 million and allied health professionals around five million services.”
Mr Hunt said telehealth had improved access and provided more choice to patients and their health professionals to support health care.
The Minister said telehealth services provided by GPs would now be included in calculating incentive payments to practices.
“This recognises that telehealth services are now an ongoing and permanent feature of quality primary health care,” he said.
“From the moment we introduced COVID-19 telehealth, patients and medical practitioners have enthusiastically taken it up.”
Mr Hunt said telehealth services, delivered by GPs, specialists, nurses, midwives and allied health practitioners, had saved and protected lives during the pandemic.
