MyMedicare is a new voluntary patient registration model. It aims to strengthen the relationship between patients, their general practice, general practitioner, and primary care teams. It zeroes in on a crucial aspect of our healthcare system, continuity of care – particularly in the face of an ageing population and the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases.
MyMedicare is only at the early stages of development, so it will take some time for practices to get all the answers you need.
General practices can now begin the MyMedicare registration process and patients can register for MyMedicare from 1 October 2023.
Our friends at leading practice intelligence platform provider Cubiko recently held a MyMedicare webinar [link to https://www.cubiko.com.au/resources/navigating-mymedicare-what-you-can-do-now-to-prepare-your-practice/] with the Australian Association of Practice Management and shared some of the following information:
Patient registration
Patients will be able to register
- Through the Medicare App
- Online through MyMedicare website
- Paper forms
Two-way consent for registration
It requires both parties, the patient and the practice to accept a patient registered for that practice. For instance, a patient can register for a practice, and then the practice needs to accept the patient registration.
Know your patients
The first step to preparing for MyMedicare effectively is understanding your patient base. Different patients will benefit from MyMedicare in different ways. For instance, your patients who receive a GPMP [link to https://www.cubiko.com.au/blog/what-is-a-gp-management-plan/] once registered with your practice from November 2024, will only be able to receive that GPMP at your practice. Highlighting key benefits to key patient cohorts is crucial.
Set up your practice for Patient Cohort Analysis
- Make sure your patient database is accurate. Before you begin looking to register patients in October, make sure your patient database is set up for success. That means that the right patients are marked as active.
- Deactivate patients who are no longer active. MyMedicare patient eligibility is based on whether a patient has had two face-to-face visits in the last two years. You could use this as a base of whether a patient is active for MyMedicare at your practice.
- Focus on your active patients for MyMedicare. It wouldn’t make much sense for a patient if they receive communication to register at your practice, and then they find they aren’t eligible because they don’t meet the criteria for two face-to-face visits in the last two years. Make sure you are contacting the right patients, at the right time.
Identify patients for MyMedicare
- Focus on where the changes are:
The major changes announced can be summarised as:
- Changes to telehealth
- Changes to Aged Care incentives
- Future initiative for Frequent Hospital Users
- Changes to CDM
There’s plenty of information still to be announced for frequent hospital users, so let’s focus on telehealth, Residential Aged Care Facility (RACF) patients and Chronic Disease Management (CDM) patients.
Rob Dickson, Chief Operating Officer at Cubiko, who presented on the webinar advised to look at patients who have had previous billings as an indicator on different patient cohorts.
For instance, patients with a previous telehealth item billed may be slated to benefit from future MyMedicare changes for telehealth in November 2023.
Strengthen patient-practitioner relationships
MyMedicare places a premium on the relationship between patients and healthcare providers. It rewards proactive and preventive care, encourages extended telehealth consultations, and incentivises GPs to register frequent hospital attendees.
Develop an education campaign
- Know your audience
- Use relatable language
- Choose the right medium such as email, SMS. mail or in-person
- Educate in the practice
It’s important to create a meaningful message to patients about why they should register with your practice. Focus on the benefits for the varying patient cohorts under MyMedicare [link benefits – MyMedicare text to https://www.cubiko.com.au/blog/a-guide-to-mymedicare-patient-registration-campaigns/] and structure education around that.
MyMedicare Educational Posters
Cubiko has developed some great MyMedicare posters that can help your practice with communicating the benefits of MyMedicare for your patients.
Further information
To watch a recording of the Cubiko Navigating MyMedicare webinar visit here.
For further information about MyMedicare including eligibility, how to register and frequently asked questions visit here.
