As you may have heard, the Commonwealth Government has flagged that there will be Medicare reimbursement for telemedicine services, hopefully occurring in the coming parliament. This is reassuring and validates the benefit of these services to the community. Quality Occupational Health continues to expand its telemedicine facilities and client base and is now offering these services 24 hours a day, Australia wide. Please contact Dr David Allen for further information on how we may be able to help you with this service.

The ALP has announced a $392 million scheme to help those living in rural and regional areas to get a special medicare rebate for telehealth consultations. This will mean patients needing medical advice would not have to travel for consultations. The package includes $250 million for these consultations providing about 500,000 services over four years for rural, remote and outer metropolitan areas. We believe that this is part of a solution for the lack of health care resources in remote and regional areas.