About Follow Up Services
These follow up services (specifically ‘follow-up allied health items 81300 to 81360’) are prepared by your General Practitioner (GP) when you self identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent, and have undergone a health assessment OR your previous plan identifies the need for follow-up allied health services . You can not access this plan if you are admitted as a hospital patient. Most often this plan is generated after completing the scheduled number of services in your original CDM/EPC management plan. This allows persons of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent with a chronic medical condition and complex care needs to access an additional 5 allied health services atop of the 5 prescribed services in their CDM/EPC plan for the same calendar year.
Your GP may refer you to one or more medicare registered health professionals that can provide follow up services, including (but are not restricted to):
- Speech Pathologists
- Occupational Therapists
- Audiologists
- Physiotherapists
- Psychologists
- Aboriginal Health Workers
- Audiologists
- Mental Health Workers
What’s the Referral Process?
At their discretion, your GP will refer you to one or more of the above mentioned health professionals using a ‘Referral form for follow-up allied health services under Medicare for people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent’. You must attend a health assessment with your GP in order to receive this referral. Within the referral, your GP may recommend a local speech pathologist, OR you can provide them with the following details:
Full name of your therapist* from HDST
Our phone number: 9054 1996
Our Address: Solent Centre, Building A Level 2 Suites 302-303
1 Burbank Place, Norwest NSW 2153
The client must provide their therapist with a copy of the referral form prior to commencing their next session. This can be given in hand to reception or emailed to your therapist or bookings@hdspeechtherapy.com.au.
*If there is a change in the speech pathologist providing the service the GP should be notified of the change.
Your GP then nominates the number of sessions up to a maximum of 5 per calendar year**. The five sessions are per client, not five sessions per allied health professional, and may be across a number of allied health professionals (e.g., three with a speech pathologist and two with an occupational therapist). Each session must be at least 20 minutes long and provided as an individual session (i.e. you can not use your referral for group therapy).The allocation of sessions is best discussed with your GP during the referral process.
** If all sessions are not used during the calendar year in which the client was referred, the unused sessions can be used in the next calendar year. However, those sessions will be counted as part of the five sessions with allied health professionals available to the client during that calendar year.
How much is the rebate?
The current rebate is $53.80. (as of July 2019). We do not bulk bill (i.e. only charge the Medicare rebate) for services at Hills District Speech Therapy. Our therapy and assessment fees are more than the rebate amount and need to be paid in full prior to making a claim. You will be left with an out of pocket expense from each follow up session, however these expenses will count towards your Medicare safety net.
How can I make a claim?
Upon having provided your therapist with a copy of the referral and paying the full session fee, you will be emailed a receipt with important information required by Medicare to make a successful claim. You can then provide Medicare with this receipt using the app or visiting your closest Medicare branch. The rebate will be deposited into your nominated bank account. If you lose track of how many speech pathology services you have claimed in a calendar year, please contact Medicare on 132 011.