In the interests of helping to keep everyone safe and slow down the spread of Covid-19, I am switching to Telehealth sessions only for the time being. It’s a difficult decision, because so much of therapy is about sharing space in the room together and Telehealth does feel a bit less personal, but it is only temporary. For now I will be conducting Telehealth sessions using Skype.
The current criteria for being eligible to claim Medicare for Telehealth using one of your existing Mental Health Care Plan sessions are:
- people isolating themselves at home on the advice of a medical practitioner, in accordance with home isolation guidance issued by the AHPPC, and
- people who meet the current national triage protocol criteria for suspected COVID-19 infection after consultation with either the national COVID-19 hotline, state COVID-19 hotlines, registered medical or nursing practitioner or COVID-19 trained health clinic triage staff
- people aged over 70
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged over 50
- people with chronic health conditions or who are immunocompromised
- parents with new babies and people who are pregnant.
If you do not meet these criteria, I can bill you privately (not through Medicare) at a reduced fee of $126.50. This is not much more than you would normally pay in gap fee. Hopefully Medicare will soon relax the criteria around who is eligible for Telehealth sessions so that we can all safely access it.
Take care,
Juliette
Lovell Psychology 