Federal Government announces return of bulk-billed telehealth psychiatry consultations in regional Australia

The Australian Government has announced it will be restoring bulk-billed video telehealth psychiatry consultations as part of its upcoming Budget.

Health Minister Mark Butler announced on Monday that from November 1, Australians in regional and rural areas will have access to Medicare-covered psychiatric consultations as a result of $47.7 million in funding from the Government.

The option for psychiatrists to provide bulk-billed telehealth consultations was cut by the then-Morrison Government in December 2021, which meant many regional patients had to pay gap fees to receive treatment.

Mr Butler said the move was an important and necessary one for tackling mental illness in regional Australia.

“The former government’s cuts to regional mental health consultations during a pandemic were unconscionable,” he said.

“Our rural and regional communities have endured drought, bushfires, floods and the impacts of COVID-19 in recent years - a perfect storm of factors that have taken a significant toll on people’s mental health.”

Headspace Geraldton manager Fiona Stewart said reversing the previous government’s decisions and committing to provide telehealth consultations was incredibly important.

“It changes lives, it’s really hard for people here to get psychiatric care, it’s so expensive but it is such an important thing,” she said.

“If you are in a regional or remote area, for psychiatry, you cannot manage really unwell people without it.”

Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) President, Associate Professor Vinay Lakra praised the decision but said more needed to be done to make psychiatric care affordable for regional Australians.

“The removal of bulk-billed telehealth compounded existing economic inequities by burdening patients with unaffordable gap-fees and out-of-pocket costs and while affordability is still a major issue across the board, this reinstatement is a step in the right direction,” he said.

The Government said reinstating Medicare support was expected to support 543,000 consultations over the next five years.