According to the ABC a re-elected Gillard Government will provide payments for practitioners who provide services (e-mail, consults etc) via the Internet.
More to come!
David.
Update:
6minutes.com.au is reporting the following:
http://www.6minutes.com.au/articles/z1/view.asp?id=522106
Medicare rebates for online consults
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has just announced that a Labor government will allocate $250 million to fund Medicare rebates for online consultations for people in rural and regional areas. Labor will also offer $57 million in incentives for GPs to deliver online services from July 2011.
David.
This is smart I think. The medicare payment is an incentive to offer remote consultation which drives specialists to invest in technology, because it is now worthwhile. As they are ramping up to do this, the light bulb switches on that having access to the patent's records might be good too, and so we have a real recognition of why we need a shared record infrastructure. And hopefully there is a race to be the most 'online' specialists to attract the rural traffic.
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