To the Editor: I write in protest about the short-sighted decision of the Australian Government to remove outer metropolitan areas from eligibility for Medicare rebates for telehealth from 1 January 2013. Since then, there has been a 29% drop in the number of video consultations, with 9476 recorded from 1 January to 28 February 2013, compared with 13 311 from 1 November to 31 December 2012.1
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- 1. Department of Human Services. Medicare Australia statistics: Medicare item reports. https://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/statistics/mbs_item.shtml (accessed Mar 2013).
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- 3. Fortney JC, Burgess JF Jr, Bosworth HB, et al. A re-conceptualization of access for 21st century healthcare. J Gen Intern Med 2011; 26 Suppl 2: 639-647.
- 4. MacLauchlan M, Mannan H, McAuliffe E. Access to health care of persons with disabilities as an indicator of equity in health systems. Open Med 2011; 5: e10-e12.
- 5. Spaulding R, Cain S, Sonnenschein K. Urban telepsychiatry: uncommon service for a common need. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am 2011; 20: 29-39.
- 6. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australia’s health 2010. Canberra: AIHW, 2010. (AIHW Cat. No. AUS 122; Australia’s Health Series No. 12.) http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication- detail/?id=6442468376 (accessed Dec 2012).
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I am presently employed by the University of Adelaide and am managing a project on telehealth that is funded by the Department of Health and Ageing. Until July 2012, I was the unpaid Medical Director of Design Networks Pty Ltd, a small South Australian company that supplies telehealth services. I have been reimbursed by Design Networks and by Telstra for expenses incurred in the course of attending telehealth conferences in Australia.