The Medicare items covering women’s health assessments and chronic disease management have changed

The RACGP recently held an online Medicare workshop to discuss the new perimenopause and menopause assessment items, update chronic disease management arrangements and provide practical advice for practice teams.

This webinar is free to access for all RACGP members and covers the following topics:

  • The new health assessment items, which will commence on 1 July 2025, will be available annually to all Medicare eligible patients who are experiencing premature ovarian insufficiency, early menopause, perimenopause, or menopause symptoms, or undergoing treatment for these symptoms.
  • Medicare health assessment services promote a proactive approach to identifying and responding to a patient’s holistic health and physical, psychological and social needs.
  • The Medicare fee for a menopause health assessment delivered by a GP will be $101.90
  • The items will be available for an initial period of two years. Longer-term arrangements for the items will be informed by outcomes of the MBS Health Assessment Review, expected in 2025.
  • Further advice on the new item’s requirements will be made public as soon as possible. However, the items will be consistent with existing health assessment items in that they will involve a range of activities, such as information collection, including taking a patient history and undertaking or arranging examinations and investigations as required, making an overall assessment of the patient, recommending appropriate interventions, and providing advice and information to the patient.
  • Replacing GP Management Plans and Team Care Arrangements with a single GP Chronic Condition Management Plan
  • Removal of the requirement to consult with at least two collaborating providers, as described under the current Team Care Arrangement
  • Providing for practice nurses, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practitioners and Aboriginal heath workers to assist with the preparation/review of plans
  • Supporting continuity of care by requiring patients registered through MyMedicare to access plans and reviews through the practice where they are registered
  • Equalising the fees for development and review of a plan to support ongoing reviews
  • Moving to referral letters for referrals to allied health services
  • A 2-year transition period for existing patients with a GP Management Plan and/or Team Care Arrangement.

You can check out all the changes here: RACGP OnDemand Webinar.