A review of Medicare expenditure in Australia for psychiatric consultations delivered in person and via videoconference

作者：Smith Anthony C^*; Armfield Nigel R; Croll Jasmine; Gray Leonard C

来源：Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 2012, 18(3): 169-171.

DOI：10.1258/jtt.2012.SFT111

We examined the activity (services recorded) and cost (benefits paid) of reimbursement associated with telepsychiatry services in the Australian public health-care sector. We reviewed the activity and costs administered through the government's Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) from July 2002 to June 2011. During this nine-year-period, almost 14 million psychiatric consultations were funded through Medicare at a cost of $1.6 billion. Of these, 8003 were telepsychiatry consultations which cost $934,000, i.e. the video consultations subgroup represented 0.06% of all psychiatric consultations provided and 0.06% of the total cost to the government for these services. Despite telepsychiatry being a widely reported and successful example of telehealth internationally, the uptake of telepsychiatry in Australia has been slow.

• 出版日期2012