title: A review of Medicare expenditure in Australia for psychiatric consultations delivered in person and via videoconference.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Online Health, Level 3 Foundation Building, Royal Children's Hospital, Herston Road, Herston, QLD 4029, Australia. asmith@uq.edu.au
authors.forename: Anthony C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Nigel R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Armfield
authors.forename: Jasmine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Croll
authors.forename: Leonard C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Gray
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D049269:Videoconferencing / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data