The Service
A telehealth service is a psychological therapy service that is delivered via video conference where both a visual and audio link has been established between a patient and their treating allied health professional. Telehealth services can be delivered by psychologists, social workers and occupational therapists that are registered with Medicare.
In some cases, Yes. The Australian Government announced the introduction of a new measure, Telehealth measure to improve access to psychological services for rural and remote patients, to improve access to mental health treatment services for people in rural, remote and very remote locations (Modified Monash Model areas 4 - 7).
The person receiving care must be located in Monash Modified Model (MMM) areas 4 -7. To find out if you are located in an eligible area, please visit the The Doctor Connect Website and type in your postcode.
The person receiving care must:
a. be eligible for Medicare rebates; and
b. not be admitted to hospital at the time; and
c. not a patient of an emergency department at the time; and
d. be located both:
i. within a telehealth eligible area at the time of the appointment; and
ii. located at least 15 kilometres by road from the eligible health practitioner.
No. Medicare benefits are not available for Australians who are overseas at the time of the service.
No, you do not require any type of referral to use MeHelp. Referrals are only required if you wish to claim rebates from Medicare.
If you do wish to claim your sessions, please be aware of the eligibility requirements for claiming Telehealth sessions (See our Medicare Rebates section for more information.)
The use of technology for our sessions comes at the risk of a network drop-out, or other computer issues. If this were the case and you are unable to log back into your session. Your psycholgist will attempt to get in contact with you via email or phone to either help fix the issue, or perhaps book another appointment at a different time. Your next appointment time may be booked for the remaining minutes that were missed, this can be booked and adjusted by your psychologist to ensure you are not billed twice.
The video Link will be sent to your email address half an hour prior to your appointment and will remain active until your session is completed. This should give you enough time to get set-up and access the link. If you are having trouble, please contact your practitoiner.
If for any reason your equipmemnt is not working as you expected, your practitioner will try their best to help you or may make the decision to re-schedule your session if need be.