Popular Answers

When bulk billing, is the patient’s agreement to assign their Medicare benefit required for all items or just the consultation items?

2 October 24

The questioner added that everything they had read talks about telehealth items only. Their understanding was that the assignment of benefit is only required for consultation items but not for other items. They gave the example of whether consent was required to bulk bill a 11714 ECG.

Is an SMS or email a valid signature on the bulk bill voucher?

1 August 21

How can I obtain the patient’s signature consenting to bulk billing over a phone call, through a telehealth video consultation or in circumstances where the patient is not required to be physically present such as case conferences?

Can a cardiologist self-refer to follow up a patient post discharge from hospital?

24 February 21

The question posed was: “Cardiologist, Dr Z, performs a procedure (permanent pacemaker implant) at hospital A (provider number 1), but would like to see the patient for ongoing care/follow up at practice B (provider number 2). Can Dr Z self-refer for the follow up visit?”

Can item 11714 (ECG) be co-claimed with item 17610 or 17615 (pre-anaesthetic consultations) prior to admission?

24 February 21

The question posed was: If an ECG is performed during a pre-admission consultation (MBS Item 17610 or 17615) and the criteria of item number 11714 is met, is it permissible to claim both?

If a public inpatient is discharged and then referred back to the hospital outpatient clinic by the GP (so, no previous Medicare billing), can I bill item 132 if I spend more than an hour with the patient?

28 January 21

A hospital billing manager asked: If we have a public inpatient that is discharged from the brain injury unit to the outpatient clinic for follow up (at this point no previous Medicare billing would have taken place as they were a public patient) and the GP writes a specific referral for the patient to see a specialist post inpatient discharge (different specialist from their inpatient stay). The patient is seen in the outpatient clinic for > 1 hr. Can we bill a 132, given that no previous billing has occurred? The factors here are that the patient is referred to a new service by a GP; no previous 132 has been raised.