• Home
• Indigenous Chronic
  Disease Package
• Tackling Chronic Disease
  Risk Factors
  • National action to reduce Indigenous smoking rate
  • Helping Indigenous Australians to reduce their risk of chronic disease
  • Local Indigenous community campaigns to promote better health
• Improving Chronic Disease
  Management and Follow up
  • Subsidising PBS medicine co-payments
  • Higher utilisation costs for MBS and PBS
  • Supporting primary care providers to coordinate chronic disease management
  • Improving Indigenous participation in health care through chronic disease self management
  • Increasing specialist and allied health follow up care
  • Monitoring and evaluation
• Workforce Expansion,
  Training and Support
  • Workforce education and training
  • Expanding the outreach and service capacity of Indigenous health services
  • Engaging Medicare Locals to improve Indigenous Access to mainstream primary care
  • Attracting more people to work in Indigenous Health
  • Clinical practice and decision support

5. Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items¹

• General Overview

1. Information for General Practitioners on the Indigenous Chronic Disease Package
2. Patient identification
3. Practice Incentives Program (PIP) Indigenous Health Incentive
4. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health assessment items
5. MBS items overview
6. Chronic disease follow-up services
7. Allied health follow-up services
8. Practice nurses/Registered Aboriginal Health Worker follow-up services
9. Pharmaceuticals Benefit Scheme (PBS) Co-payment measure
10. Care Coordination and Supplementary Services Program (CCSS)

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Who is eligible?

Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people (as identified by self or a parent/carer)

Overview

Two objectives of the Australian Government’s Indigenous Chronic Disease Package are to improve the rate of preventive health checks and to improve the management of chronic disease within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. This card provides a quick reference of the relevant MBS item numbers.

Health assessment

Item 715: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Assessment

Available to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, but requirements vary according to age group: 0-14, 15-54, and 55+ years of age

Fee*	Benefit	Frequency	Assistance
$200.20	100% = $200.20	Place other than a hospital or residential aged care facility	Once in a 9 month period

MBS health assessment resource kits containing additional information and proformas are available from http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/ Content/mbsprimarycare_ATSI_mbsha_resource_kit. Proformas provide useful guidance, but are not mandatory to claim items as long as all requirements are met.

Item 10987: Follow up service by a Practice Nurse or registered Aboriginal Health Worker†

Follow-up services for an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person who has received a health check.

Fee*	Benefit	Frequency
$23.10	100% = $23.10	Maximum of 10 services per year

Items 81300 to 81360: Follow-up allied health services

Available to any Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person who has had a health check, during which the need for follow-up allied health services is identified.

Fee*	Benefit	Frequency
$59.90	85% = $50.95	Maximum of five health services per year
Item	Description
81300	Aboriginal Health Worker††
81305	Diabetes education
81310	Audiology
81315	Exercise physiology
81320	Dietetics
81325	Mental health work
81330	Occupational therapy
81335	Physiotherapy
81340	Podiatry
81345	Chiropractic
81350	Osteopathy
81355	Psychology
81360	Speech pathology

Items 81300-81360 are available in addition to items 10950-10970 or they provide an alternative pathway to allied health services for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.

Chronic disease

Items 721 – 732: Chronic disease management

These items are NOT specifically for Aboriginal and/ or Torres Strait Islander people but have been included here because they can be accessed as part of chronic disease management.

Item	Description	Fee*	Benefit	Frequency#
721	Preparation of a GP Management Plan (GPMP)	$136.05	75% = $102.05 100% = $136.05	12 months
723	Coordination of Team Care Arrangements (TCAs)	$107.80	75% = $80.85 100% = $107.80	12 months
729	Contribution to, or review of, a Multidisciplinary Care Plan for patients not in a residential aged care facility	$66.35	100%	3 months
731	Contribution to, or review of, a Multidisciplinary Care Plan for residents of an aged care facility	$66.35	100%	3 months
732	Review of a GP Management Plan or coordination of a review of Team Care Arrangements	$68.00	75% = $50.10 100% = $66.80	3 months

Items 721 – 732: Chronic disease management

Items 10950 and 10997: Services provided by a Practice Nurse or Aboriginal Health Worker

These items are NOT specifically for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people but for eligible persons with a chronic condition.

Item	Description	Fee*	Benefit	Frequency
10950	Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander health service by an eligible Aboriginal Health Worker†† (for persons with chronic condition and complex care needs)	$59.90	85% = $50.95	Maximum of five services per year (includes 10950)
10997	Service provided by a Practice Nurse or registered Aboriginal Health Worker†	$11.55	100% = $11.55

Additional MBS items provided by a Nurse or registered Aboriginal Health Worker

These items are NOT specifically for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander patients but have been included here because they can be provided by an Aboriginal Health Worker.

Item	Description	Fee*	Benefit	Frequency
16400	Antenatal service by a Midwife, Nurse or registered Aboriginal Health Worker† provided at or from a practice in RRMA 3-7	$26.25	85% = $22.35	10 services per pregnancy
10988	Immunisation provided by a registered Aboriginal Health Worker†	$11.55	100% = $11.55	n/a
10989	Wound treatment by a registered Aboriginal Health Worker†	$11.55	100% = $11.55	n/a

† A registered Aboriginal Health Worker means a person in the Northern Territory who is registered as an Aboriginal Health Worker under the Health Practitioners Act 2004 (NT), who is employed or retained by a general practice, or by a health service that has an exemption to claim Medicare benefits under subsection 19(2) of the Health Insurance Act 1973.

†† Aboriginal Health Workers who have been awarded a Certificate Level III in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (or an equivalent or higher qualification) from a Registered Training Organisation that meets training standards set by the Australian National Training Authority’s Australian Quality Training Framework can register with Medicare Australia to provide this item.

* Current as at 1 Nov 2010.

¹Department of Health and Ageing. MBS Online. Canberra:DOHA; 2010. Available at: www.health.gov.au/mbsonline

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Page currency, Latest update: 09 December, 2010

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