To help with all media attention and discussion around Medicare and patient consent, we've collected and answered the below list of Frequently Asked Questions from practices. We hope this helps!
FAQs on Healthengine's Solution
- How do I setup the Bulk bill consent product in Practice Admin?
- What does the patient journey look like for this product?
- If I change a patient's appointment type prior to their appointment time, will the SMS be sent?
- What if a patient doesn't give their consent?
- Will an SMS request be sent if the patient is on Healthengine's Blocked Communications list?
- What if there's no mobile number on the patient file?
- What if the patient hasn't approved the assignment of benefits via the SMS request?
- When does the URL in the SMS expire for patients to click into and approve the Medicare rebate?
- How long do I need to keep a record of a patient’s consent for a bulk billed appointment?
How do I setup the Bulk bill consent product in Practice Admin?
A step-by-step guide with supporting screenshots is provided in our Bulk bill consent - Getting started & how it works article.
Please note that the below actions need to be completed for the SMS request to be sent to the patient for their appointment:
Best Practice
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Enable the relevant PMS appointment types for the Bulk bill consent product in Practice Admin
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Change the appointment status to patient arrived
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Start appointment visit
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Complete appointment visit
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Invoice the appointment directly to Medicare: selecting either 'Store' or 'Hold ' will trigger the SMS request to send to the patient.
Pracsoft/ Medical Director
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Enable the relevant PMS appointment types for the Bulk bill consent product in Practice Admin
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Locate the relevant appointment in your Pracsoft appointment book
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Start recording as a same day visit for this patient in Pracsoft
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Create an invoice for the recent appointment:
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Add the relevant MBS items
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Set the 'Invoice to' fields as Bulk Bill
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Ensure “Remove from Waiting Room” is ticked in Visit options
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Once you're done, select 'Voucher'
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Complete appointment visit
Considerations:
> SMS request won’t send if invoice is marked as “HOLD”
> If there are multiple visits in a day, ensure that the “Consult time” is close to the appointment time.
What does the patient journey look like for this product?
- The patient receives the SMS request to approve bulk billing with a link to the assignment of benefits form
- The patient is asked to verify their identity; we use the same verification process as our Recalls and Check-ins product to ensure compliance with RACGP guidelines
- The patient verifies their identity and is shown the form with the MBS item numbers and rebate amount/s that the practice is bulk billing for
- The patient clicks the 'I agree' checkbox and submits the form
- The patient is shown a copy of the approved form and has the option to print the form; they can download the form via the print button
If I change a patient's appointment type prior to their appointment time, will the SMS be sent?
Yes.
If the appointment type is changed in the PMS prior to marking the patient as arrived and starting their appointment, we will send the SMS request to the patient upon the appointment being marked complete and being invoiced directly to Medicare.
What if a patient doesn't give their consent?
If a patient verbalises during your Telehealth appointment, or contacts you afterwards, to advise that they don't want to verify themselves and approve the assigning of Medicare benefits, the patient is usually responsible for paying the full cost of the appointment.
Will an SMS request be sent if the patient is on Healthengine's Blocked Communications list?
Yes.
As this is a transaction message that requires the patient to complete an action relating to their appointment, rather than a marketing message, we do not include this notification in the Blocked Communication list.
We recommend you inform the patient at the time of their appointment, that they'll be receiving an SMS or email from Healthengine requesting they verify their identity and approve the assignment of benefits so they can be bulk billed.
What if there's no mobile number on the patient file?
If there is no mobile number on file, we will send the request via email to the email address listed on the patient's file in the PMS.
We recommend that you confirm the mobile number you have on file with the patient during their appointment to ensure this SMS sends and is sent to the right number.
If you add the mobile number to the patient file after the consult, you should see a 'send' button on the Dashboard in Practice Admin > Bulk bill consent; if you click 'send' after adding a mobile number, we will send an SMS to the newly added mobile number in the patient file.
What if the patient hasn't approved the assignment of benefits via the SMS request?
You can click the 're-send' button next to the relevant appointment on the Overview page of the Bulk bill consent page in your Practice Admin portal.
We have limited the ability to re-send an SMS to 1 SMS per day.
We recommend advising the patient at the time of their appointment, to submit their approval upon receiving the SMS to complete the bulk bill process; after which you may call them to follow up on the consent or process the appointment as private billing, whichever billing process you usually practice.
If I’ve collected patient consent in a past appointment, do I need to collect it again?
Yes, Medicare requires the collection of patient consent for every appointment where bulk billing occurs.
Does patient consent need to be collected at the time of the appointment?
Patient consent to the Medicare assignment of benefits must be obtained after the relevant services have been provided in full.
When does the URL in the SMS expire for patients to click into and approve the Medicare rebate?
The patient will be unable to access and approve this form from 1 week after the appointment date.
How long do I need to keep a record of a patient’s consent for a bulk billed appointment?
Medicare recommends that practices keep a copy of all emails, claims and forms for at least 2 years. This is for auditing purposes if they are subject to a compliance review.
Referenced from Assignment of benefit signature requirements and exemptions - MBS and telehealth - Services Australia
If you can't find the question you're after from the above list, check out our Bulk bill consent troubleshooting guide here.
If you're after Medicare specific information around these changes, check out our article on Bulk bill consent - Medicare changes and collecting consent FAQs.
If you have any follow up questions or concerns, please feel free to contact your Customer Success Manager directly or Live Chat with a member of our Customer Support team via the 'Help' button in your Practice Admin portal. We're here to help!
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