This appeared last week.
Further extension of electronic prescription subsidy
The Department of Health will support general practices to prescribe via SMS until at least 30 June 2022.
10 Aug 2021
The number of electronic prescriptions being
used in Australia is increasing by around 500,000 every week,
and as of July 2021, more than 12 million
original and repeat prescriptions have been issued.
To date, this growth has been supported by a Federal Government subsidy that
has allowed general practices to prescribe via SMS without incurring additional
costs.
However, there were concerns about the future of electronic prescribing should
the subsidy end, which is why RACGP Expert Committee – Practice Technology and
Management (REC–PTM) representative Dr David Adam has welcomed its extension
until at least 30 June 2022.
‘The subsidy provides more certainty for practice owners and practitioners and
will help to consolidate electronic prescribing as a core part of practice,’ he
told newsGP.
‘[It will also] support effective telehealth with the ongoing uncertainty
created by COVID-19 outbreaks.’
Dr Adam had previously expressed concerns about general practices having to
assume the costs of prescriptions sent via SMS should the subsidy end, and
questioned why the service was so expensive.
‘We should also be asking ourselves why the cost of sending an SMS [via a
computer program] in Australia is roughly seven times the cost of the United
States,’ he
told newsGP at the time.
To this end, the REC–PTM advocated for a further extension of the subsidy
applied to the sending of electronic prescription tokens by SMS, and led
discussions with the Australian Digital Health Agency.
Alternatives exist for prescribers and dispensers to send electronic
prescriptions to patients via email or through mobile applications that do not
incur these SMS costs.
The expansion of the Active
Script List (ASL) will also enable more healthcare providers and
patients to have the option of a token management solution that does not incur
SMS fees.
More here:
https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/further-extension-of-electronic-prescription-subsi
This is also covered here:
EPrescription
SMS Subsidy Extension to 30 June 2022
Australian Medical Association
GPs should be aware that the ePrescription SMS subsidy has been extended to 30 June 2022.
This extension comes after ongoing review of the Boston Consulting Group consultation, to which the AMA made a submission in May 2021. The AMA has been calling on the Department of Health and the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) to develop long term solutions to avoid these SMS costs being passed onto prescribers.
The Department of Health is now considering the outcomes of this work and intends to engage in further consultation across the health sector.
It should be noted that SMS costs are specific to the provision of electronic prescription tokens to patients on their mobile phone. Alternatives exist for prescribers and dispensers to send electronic prescriptions to patients via email or through mobile applications that do not incur these SMS costs.
Now that the Active Script List is expanding in its availability to consumers across Australia, more health professionals and consumers will also be able to use this token management solution that will not incur the SMS charges. Innovations across the digital landscape will offer other alternatives as more digital health initiatives become a reality over time.
Here is the link:
https://www.miragenews.com/eprescription-sms-subsidy-extension-to-30-june-612278/
This can only suggest that the Government is seeing that what is really a trivial cost of an SMS fee per script, borne by the GP, is a significant barrier to continued deployment and use of eScripts despite there being free options available. For the notoriously penny-pinching DOH to continue this largesse only suggests they KNOW it is needed or am I missing something.
Responses by free comment!
David.
This seems a common theme with Digital Health. Technologists claim benefits, nobody else sees any value. Rather like the MyHR. Nobody is willing to pay - apart from the Federal Government, so you might wonder what value they see in it. Must be all that lovely data they collect. Unfortunately for the government, patients and GPs are not prepared to pay the cost of uploading and managing their data.
ReplyDeleteThe government must be so disappointed. Maybe that's why all those ADHA execs have just jumped ship.