Medicare provides additional funding for patients who have longer-term medical issues. This funding enables your GP, nurse and Allied Health providers to look after your needs in a more coordinated and comprehensive manner.
Any patient who has a medical condition expected to last for 6 months or more can qualify. Common examples include:
- Arthritis
- Asthma
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Diabetes
- Liver or kidney disease
- Dementia
- Chronic pain
- Significant injuries, fractures
There are two parts to this program. Firstly, your GP can prepare (once per year, with reviews every 3 months) a GP Management Plan.
A GP Management Plan is where we ensure all of your history, medications, allergies, results, relevant specialist details and the goals of your treatment are agreed with you, documented and summarised on our system. You are entitled to a copy of the Management Plan, which can be useful for you to have on hand if you need to see a different doctor when travelling or visit an Emergency Department.
A Team Care Arrangement is written when you are under the care of several (two or more) other health providers, such as specialists or Allied Health Providers. For example, if you had arthritis you might be under a physiotherapist plus an orthopaedic surgeon; or if you had kidney disease you might see a kidney specialist but also need specialist dietitian advice.
A great benefit of a Team Care Arrangement is that enables you to claim a Medicare rebate for seeing an Allied Health Provider (AHP) five times per year. The list of AHP’s this applies to includes:
- Audiologists (hearing and balance problems)
- Chiropractor, Osteopath
- Diabetes Educator
- Dietitian
- Exercise Physiologist
- Occupational Therapist
- Physiotherapist
- Podiatrist
- Speech Therapist
Having this funding can enable you to access these services for no, or greatly reduced, out of pocket costs.
At Azure Medical, we work as a closely-knit team of health professionals as this gives the best outcome and experience for our patients. Therefore our Practice Nurses will often be involved in helping your GP draw up your Management Plan or Team Care Arrangement.