COVID-19 Items

COVID-19 Items

Cutting Edge has the COVID-19 specific telehealth consultation items loaded. They are initially available for consultations between 13 March 2020 and 30 Sept 2020.
  1. These item numbers are stand-alone and cannot be billed with regular telehealth items such as 112. 
  2. Vulnerable patients must be Bulk Billed (change the Fee Basis to REBATE on an invoice).
  3. A referral is still required for initial Specialist Consultations
Full details of the items can be found on this Medicare web page.

Medicare has advised on 26 March 2020 that under the current exceptional and temporary circumstances, for the COVID-19 items only, it is sufficient for a practitioner to document in the clinical notes the patient’s agreement to assign their benefit as full payment for the service, in lieu of printing a DB4 Bulk Bill Assignment Advice form, Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) Printed Statements (D1216S) etc. This means that agreement can be obtained through one of three options being 
  1. in writing,
  2. by email,  or
  3. verbally through the technology with which the attendance is conducted. 
This agreement can be provided by a patient, or another person, such as the person’s carer or family member. The practitioner should keep their own record that the patient agreed or acknowledged that the service was provided, and that the Medicare benefit could be paid directly to the practitioner.

Please note that Cutting Edge automatically creates the appropriate form whenever when you submit an electronic claim. It is stored in the Invoice History and can be printed from there.


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