1:30min
By Helen Carter
Journalist
New Medicare rebates are outlined in a stand-alone Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) book for optometry items that members can access and download from the Optometry Australia website.
Medicare and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) have indexed consultation fees by 1.5 per cent. Increases to MBS fees came into effect on July 1, 2020.
The full MBS listing of updated fees can be found at MBS Online but as Medicare no longer separates optometry items from the other 5,700 items, Optometry Australia has created a stand-alone 16-page MBS Optometrical Services Schedule (July 2020) booklet.
The Optometry Australia created booklet has extracted details from pages of the full Medicare Benefits Schedule Book published by the Australian Government Department of Health.
The booklet covers general optometrical services, telehealth attendance and updates to MBS explanatory notes.
A five-page booklet on updated DVA fees, effective July 1, 2020 can be found on the Department of Veterans’ Affairs website. We have also uploaded the new DVA Consultation Fees– 1 July 2020 booklet on increased consultation fees, and another new document on visual appliance fees, DVA Visual Aids – 1 July 2020 onto our website.
Major optometric software providers have been advised of the changes.
Members can access the MBS Optometrical Services Schedule (July 2020) booklet by logging in and going on our website to the Practice and professional support section, then the Medicare, private billing and health funds section, then Medicare items and explanatory notes, then scroll to the General Medicare area.
It can also be found under the Practice and professional support section, Students and registration advice, Optometric billing and Medicare section. Scroll to the bottom and the booklet is under the resources section.
Tagged as: Medicare-MBS-PBS