Abstract
Objective:The Australian federal government introduced additional Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) telehealth-items to facilitate care by private psychiatrists during the COVID-19 pandemic.Method:We analysed private psychiatrists’ uptake of video and telephone-telehealth, as well as total (telehealth and face-to-face) consultations for April 2020–April 2021. We compare these to face-to-face consultations for April 2018–April 2019. MBS-Item service data were extracted for COVID-19-psychiatrist-video- and telephone-telehealth item numbers and compared with face-to-face consultations for the whole of Australia.Results:Psychiatric consultation numbers (telehealth and face-to-face) were 13% higher during the first year of the pandemic compared with 2018–2019, with telehealth accounting for 40% of this total. Face-to-face consultations were 65% of the comparative number of 2018–2019 consultations. There was substantial usage of telehealth consultations during 2020–2021. The majority of telehealth involved short telephone consultations of ⩽15–30 min, while video was used more, in longer consultations.Conclusions:Private psychiatrists and patients continued using the new telehealth-items during 2020–2021. This compensated for decreases in face-to-face consultations and resulted in an overall increase in the total patient contacts compared to 2018–2019.
Highlights
Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS)-Item Service data were extracted from the Services Australia Medicare Item Reports for psychiatrist practice office-based face-to-face consultations, COVID-19 video- and telephone-telehealth consultations for April 2020–April 2021 (2020–21 hereinafter) in Microsoft Excel format, and transferred to a purpose-built Excel database and analysed
In terms of specific items, we found the following: Telehealth new patient assessments for autism spectrum disorders (289-equivalents) were 22% of the pre-COVID-19 face-to-face consultations 2018–19, with video-telehealth used in 88% of these consultations
For 2020–21, the total combined use of telehealth and face-to-face consultations increased by 13% compared to the equivalent period in 2018–19
Summary
MBS-Item Service data were extracted from the Services Australia Medicare Item Reports (http://medicarestatistics.humanservices.gov.au/statistics/mbs_item.jsp) for psychiatrist practice office-based face-to-face consultations, COVID-19 video- and telephone-telehealth consultations for April 2020–April 2021 (2020–21 hereinafter) in Microsoft Excel format, and transferred to a purpose-built Excel database and analysed (totals, proportions, percentages).
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