Your New Medicare Online Doctors – Instant Consult Can Now Bulk Bill!

Great news! Instant Consult can now provide bulk billed consultations to eligible patients, meaning we can now connect you with Medicare funded online GP’s with the same convenient features our app offers.

This is the result of a prudent move by the Government to include Medicare covered online consults as part of its response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that you are no doubt well-aware of.

Bulk billed consultations will be available to all Australians with a valid Medicare card until Sunday 19th July 2020.
From Monday 20th July 2020 to 31st December 2021, bulk billed consultations will be available to all Australians with a valid Medicare card if they are under 12 months of age, homeless or living in a COVID-19 impacted area.
If you are not eligible for a bulk billed consult from 20th July, or are not a Medicare card holder, rest assured we have kept our consult fees as low as possible (from just $35) to ensure we offer an effective and affordable solution to our users.

This is a great policy response by the Government in a time of crisis and uncertainty, as it means that Australians will be able to access Medicare funded online doctors comfortably within their self-imposed quarantine. With this new development, nobody needs to feel guilty about overburdening the health system with their non-coronavirus related ailments by lining up at clinics, or potentially exposing themselves to infection by leaving the house when they don’t need to.

This policy decision also reflects the inherent utility of telehealth services in minimising cross-infection between people who might otherwise attend the same location for a medical consultation. With access to Medicare funded online doctors via Instant Consult, you can have your medical issues addressed without it costing you any more than a traditional visit, enabling you to better isolate yourself from contact with others (the main way to avoid infection and spreading the virus).

You are now able to access our full range of medical services from online doctors at home without it costing you a premium. This means everything from medical certificates, prescriptions, radiology requests + more can all be done from home at no added cost to you.

Beating COVID-19

It’s expected that measures like enabling Australians to access bulk billed GP’s via video consult and a swathe of other coronavirus responses from the Government are going to be massively impactful in both slowing the spread of coronavirus and mitigating its negative impact on the economy. With these very sensible measures in place, the hope is that Australia will be able ride-out the COVID-19 pandemic and minimise the tragic deaths as a result of it.

What can you do?

Getting past COVID-19 with minimal loss of life and economic impact requires everyone, at all levels of society, to do their part to avoid unnecessary contact with others. Now, with the ability to access online doctors covered by Medicare, you can use an app like Instant Consult for all of your future medical consultations with a GP (that are clinically appropriate without a physical appointment).

This means that when you have a medical issue, you can use Instant Consult to request a consult with a bulk billed GP digitally and minimise the need to leave your home (if one of our GP’s gives you a pathology request, for example, you would still need to leave home to get your test). Swapping to relying on a telehealth service like Instant Consult during the COVID-19 pandemic is a very sensible course of action that will protect both you and others from unnecessary contact.

If you have any questions about using Instant Consult to access Medicare funded online doctors, read our FAQ page or get in touch!

If you want to speak to a doctor now, login and request a consult on the Instant Consult app.

by Instant Consult

Source: https://www.instantconsult.com.au/your-new-medicare-online-doctors-instant-consult-can-now-bulk-bill