From 16 July 2021, the Government is implementing longer general practice telephone services to provide an increased Medicare benefit for patients who are located in an area declared as a COVID-19 hotspot by the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer or are subject to a public health order that requires the person to be in isolation or quarantine. The list of hotspots declared by the Chief Medical Officer is currently available on health.gov.au.

The two new MBS items, 92746 for GPs and 92747 for other medical practitioners (OMPs), enable medical practitioners to provide longer telephone consultations, lasting 20 minutes or more to people who are in a Commonwealth declared COVID-19 hotspot or required to isolate or quarantine because of a COVID-19 State or Territory public health order.

The new MBS items are exempt from the ‘usual medical practitioner’ rule that require a patient to have received a face-to-face consultation from the medical practitioner or the practice in the last twelve months and are only available to patients who at the time of receiving the services are in a Commonwealth declared COVID-19 hotspot or required to isolate or quarantine because of a COVID-19 State or Territory public health order.

Note: Due to time constraints it has not been possible to amend the legislation that establishes 100% rebates for GPs and OMPs services. The rebate for these items is therefore paid at 85% of the item fee. The fee amount has been increased so that the Medicare rebate paid for these items is at the same level as the equivalent rebate for a Level B consultation by a GP or OMP.

Further information is available in the following factsheet:
PDF version Factsheet Medicare Support for People in COVID-19 Hotspots (PDF 290 KB)
Word version Factsheet Medicare Support for People in COVID-19 Hotspots (Word 255 KB)