Confidentiality Provisions The Health Insurance Act 1973 (the Act) includes confidentiality provisions which mean that data cannot be released which could identify either patients or providers.

GP Practice Data
Medicare data relating to telehealth consultations is not held at the practice level.

Further Provider Data
There are a number of professional colleges which have directories of doctors who are providing telehealth services.

Extract your own data

Statistics on the use of the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items, including the MBS telehealth items can be retrieved from the Medicare Australia website: Medicare Item Reports

Data can be extracted to show services, benefits and patient demographics (including sex and age range) by item and by state. A limited amount of telehealth data can also be extracted by Medicare Local and Divisions of General Practice. Users should note that some information is not available due to the privacy provisions of the Act.

To generate reports please follow the steps outlined below.



To generate a table using this tool you will need to complete each field on the page:

1. Item numbers: Enter the item number(s) you are interested in. If you wish to report on the range of telehealth items, you can use the item numbers below:
   For all MBS telehealth items: 99, 112, 113, 114, 149, 288, 384, 389, 2799, 2820, 3003, 3015, 6004, 6016, 13210, 16399, 17609, 2100, 2126, 2143, 2195, 2122, 2137, 2147, 2199, 2125, 2138, 2179, 2220, 10983, 10984, 82150, 82151, 82152, 82220, 82221, 82222, 82223, 82224, 82225.
   For specialist video consultation services only: 99, 112, 113, 114, 149, 288, 384, 389, 2799, 2820, 3003, 3015, 6004, 6016, 13210, 16399, 17609.
   For patient-end support services only: 2100, 2126, 2143, 2195, 2122, 2137, 2147, 2199, 2125, 2138, 2179, 2220, 10983, 10984, 82150, 82151, 82152, 82220, 82221, 82222, 82223, 82224, 82225.
2. Show: Select either services (number of services provided) or benefits (Medicare contribution to the cost of the services) and either count or per capita
3. Report format: Select either by state, or by time period as desired
4. Time period: Select financial or calendar year as desired
5. Start date select July 2011 or later as desired
6. End date select date as desired
7. Select Create Report

After a short time the data will be provided in a table.
You can convert the data into an Excel spread sheet by selecting Download to Excel

Please also refer to the ‘important information’ section of the DHS web page which outlines specific details relating to this data.

Statistics to 30 June 2016

As at end of June 2016:
The Department of Human Services had processed over 475, 545 Medicare telehealth services provided to over 144,400 patients by over13,815 providers.

4,731 specialists have provided telehealth services.

Services, Patients and Providers by Provider Type – claims processed as at 30 June 2016

Provider Specialty Type	Services	Providers	Patients
Specialist	320,677	4,731	144,400
General Practitioner (includes practice nurse)	152,106	8,936
Optometrist	510	65
Midwife	54	15
Nurse Practitioner	2,198	68
Total	475,545	13,815

Services by quarter – claims processed as at 30 June 2016

Year	Quarter	Services
2011-12	Jul-Sep	1,808
	Oct-Dec	5,220
	Jan-Mar	6,094
	Apr-Jun	12,927
2012-13	Jul-Sep	16,528
	Oct-Dec	19,109
	Jan-Mar	15,405
	Apr-Jun	20,297
2013-14	Jul-Sep	22,607
	Oct-Dec	24,112
	Jan-Mar	25,492
	Apr-Jun	29,532
2014-15	Jul-Sep	31,032
	Oct-Dec	32,578
	Jan-Mar	29,640
	Apr-Jun	32,530
2015-16	Jul-Sep	36,729
	Oct-Dec	37,927
	Jan-Mar	35,468
	Apr-Jun	40,510
Total		475,545

Patient Services by State – claims processed as at 30 June 2016

State1	Services	Percentage of Services
NSW	141,974	29.86%
VIC	79,952	16.81%
QLD	147,485	31.00%
WA	32,933	6.93%
SA	35,810	7.53%
TAS	29,248	6.15%
NT	7,111	1.5%
ACT	1,032	0.22%
Total	475,545	100.0%

1. State is based on patient location, not the location of the specialist

Number of Providers by Selected Subspecialty - claims processed as at 30 June 2016

Subspecialty	Providers
Obstetrics & Gynaecology	158
Orthopaedic Surgery	170
Urology	142
ENT	75
Anaesthetics	239
Psychiatry	794
Dermatology	155
Cardiology	226
Endocrinology	195
Gastroenterology and Hepatology	211
Neurology	158
Paediatric Medicine	441
Rheumatology	125
Internal Medicine	121

Services by Patient Remoteness Area (RA) - claims processed as at 30 June 2016

RA Name	Services1
Major City	46,472
Inner Regional	213,224
Outer Regional	182,725
Remote	23,122
Very Remote	9,964
Unallocated2	38
Total	475,545

1. Supported telehealth services are attributed to the location of the supporting provider, and unsupported telehealth services are attributed to the residential address of the patient.
2. Small discrepancies occur due to the apportioning of postcodes for remoteness areas.

Remoteness Area is determined by the patient's Medicare enrolment postcode as at the date their claim was processed, based on the Remoteness Area classification 2006 developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).Remoteness Classification:
ABS Views on Remoteness Consultation, Australia (cat. no. 1244.0.00.001). Also refer to Census Geography Paper (cat. no. 03/01), ASGC Purpose and Use, available from the ABS web site.

Telehealth Quarterly Statistics document in PDF format (PDF 74 KB)

Telehealth Statistics document in WORD format (Word 5198 KB)