Telehealth for Optometry
Optometry Australia's Telehealth Advices 
Information updated as of 02/04/20 5:00pm
Australia is currently under stage 3 lockdown to contain COVID-19 and, as such, many practices have closed for general business. Many optometrists remain open for urgent care in office, while some others offer consultations via Telehealth.
Ben Hamlyn (Policy Advisor of OA) gave an excellent webcast on Telehealth that may be available for members of Optometry Australia. If you are unable to access the video, below is a summary of some of the key points he addressed in the talk.
What is Telehealth?
How do we utilise Telehealth in practice in light of COVID-19?
Can optometrists provide prescriptions via Telehealth?
How can optometrists get involved in Telehealth?
Information updated as of 02/04/20 5:00pm
Australia is currently under stage 3 lockdown to contain COVID-19 and, as such, many practices have closed for general business. Many optometrists remain open for urgent care in office, while some others offer consultations via Telehealth.
Ben Hamlyn (Policy Advisor of OA) gave an excellent webcast on Telehealth that may be available for members of Optometry Australia. If you are unable to access the video, below is a summary of some of the key points he addressed in the talk.
What is Telehealth?
- World Health Organization defines Telehealth as the 'use of telecommunications and virtual technology to deliver health care outside of traditional health-care facilities'.
- It enables consulting and dealing with patients without them being in the room, via e.g. phone conversation, video conferencing and other software.
How do we utilise Telehealth in practice in light of COVID-19?
- Firstly, it should be noted that there are not many occasions where patients can be managed solely on telehealth. Telehealth should be an adjunct to traditional face-to-face practice.
- Optometrists need to have appropriate infrastructure/platform for telehealth. In terms of hardware, it needs to be able to capture audio and video. Software wise, optometrist should consider a simpler platform that requires minimum set-up for patients, and a separate software that enables more comprehensive sharing of high-quality images for communication with ophthalmologists (e.g. Oculo). The Department of Health is currently developing a guideline for appropriate software.
- Record keeping still needs to be undertaken contemporaneously for Telehealth consultations. Optometrists may want to organise remote access to medical records for this. Note that it is consider fraud if you enter the medical records the day after conducting the Telehealth consultation.
- The consultation billing should be undertaken over the phone by e.g. credit cards. The government is extending telehealth to a number of allied health professions, but as of now, Medicare item 93000 does not list optometry as an allied health in the legislation. Optometrist can certainly bill item numbers 10945, 10946, 10947 and 10948 for video conferencing consultations along side ophthalmologists, but must abide by geographic and demographic limitations (i.e. >15km away from nearest ophthalmologist, or patient of an Aboriginal Medical Service/Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service).
Can optometrists provide prescriptions via Telehealth?
- Optometrist can provide optical scripts without face-to-face consultation after considering the circumstances of the patient. E.g. if the script has only expired 3 months earlier, and the patient is healthy with no symptoms, Optometrist may elect to extend the expiry for another 6 months.
- Digital medical prescription is not currently available for optometrists. Optometrists will need to organise a script to be either sent to the pharmacy over the phone, or a hard copy that can be picked up by the patient at their practice.
How can optometrists get involved in Telehealth?
- Members of Optometry Australia are advised to update their profile if they intend to provide telehealth for their community. A list will be provided to the general public to facilitate them with finding available clinicians.
- Optometrists can still legally provide the service without needing to update their profile.
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