Hi All
Many members have been provided a referral from their doctor to come to Green Apple to achieve health outcomes, and to have prescribed programming done by our exercise physiology team members. This referral has been termed an “Enhanced Primary Care Plan” and has been provided to patients who require Allied Health help as well as their doctor’s care to manage a condition or conditions.
At the start of this financial year, this Care Plan became a “GP Chronic Conditions Management Plan” or “GPCCMP” to reflect the directional change by the Primary Health Network (PHN). This will now influence certain processes and procedures followed by Medicare in relation to expenditure and delivery of services.
Most of the changes won’t really affect you if you have been provided EPCs in the past because we will do everything we can to minimise any transitional changes. Currently we are working on addressing admin issues arising out of the new directives.
In the Draft for the Strategic Plan for PHN, 2022 to 2032, the proposal to make health expenditure more patient-centric and to reflect health outcomes rather than just “time spent” on sessions, with patients to choose their Allied Health provider and how many sessions they will use with any particular provider. This was developed to involve patients in the decision process. All worthy initiatives, however if the patient doesn’t know who to go to or what they need, some people may struggle with finding the best provider for their needs.
This shouldn’t affect you since you already have your referrals (except that your new Care Plan sessions with be termed GPCCMP referrals) because you are already using and benefitting from the 5 Care Plan sessions you are provided each calendar year.
From now on your doctor will refer you by writing us a letter rather than using a specific form which lists what Allied Health provider you are to use, and the number of sessions you have with that provider. You will need to tell us how many of your 5 Care Plan sessions you are allocating to the Exercise Physiologists, or to Dietitians Loretta Howard or Lay.
If there is any confusion in relation to any of this, I would like to hear from you. If it is a single specific question then I’ll respond appropriately and, if it is something many members want to know, we can organise a group meeting, or meetings, to share what we know.
Cheers,
