A national advertising campaign for the new MyMedicare voluntary patient enrolment scheme is scheduled to kick off next month following the addition of patients’ MyMedicare registered practice and doctor details to the My Health Record.
Patients can opt to include their MyMedicare information and allow their healthcare providers to see it on their MyHR, as well as on the new my health app. A link to Services Australia to register for the scheme has also been added.
Patient registration for MyMedicare began last October, followed by the release by the Department of Health and Aged Care (DoHAC) of new MBS items linked to MyMedicare. DoHAC has also made available a registered patient list that can be exported and viewed by the practice.
According to the Capital Health Network, the ACT PHN, over 5500 general practices and 650,000 patients have signed up to MyMedicare since October.
This year, DoHAC will kick off the national advertising campaign and roll out a series of incentives, including the frequent hospital users incentive (FHU) in July and the GP in Aged Care Incentive in August.
Nine PHNs will be chosen to pilot the FHU this year in a three-year project that aims to connect frequent hospital users to a general practice to receive multidisciplinary care in the community.
PHNs have also been charged with helping to get aged care residents signed up in advance of the GPACI, which has been budgeted for $112 million over four years. It will pay $300 per patient per year to GPs and $130 per patient per year to the practice.
DoHAC has also been working with software vendors to get MyMedicare patient registration integrated into practice management systems. It is understood this capability may be available in June.
The GP in Aged Care Incentive is an extemely disappointing smoke and mirrors change and the aged care sector will lose many more GPs because of this cynical cost saving measure. Currently GPs receive a $10,000 incentive payment for carrying out 180 nursing home visits / year. To keep the $10,000 (unindexed of course) they will need to look after at least 34 residents for an entire year. Many GPs look after less than 34 residents and when faced with deciding will they continue with reduced funding many will say no.