ESSA calls for expansion of allied health including exercise physiology in the delivery of MBS items
Exercise & Sports Science Australia (ESSA) has called for greater engagement and support of allied health professionals, such as accredited exercise physiologists, in the delivery of Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) items. They have lodged a formal submission to coincide with a review of the MBS by the federal government.
ESSA Senior Industry Development Officer, Katie Lyndon, said expanding patient eligibility criteria to facilitate early intervention would achieve considerable health system cost savings and improved patient outcomes. With more than five per cent of Australian adults have been diagnosed with diabetes and expected to grow to 3.5 million by 2033, it made sense that these problems be addressed through the use of exercise interventions rather than waiting for people to develop a chronic condition like diabetes and funding costly treatments.
“This could be achieved through expanding eligibility criteria for access to MBS Chronic Disease Management items and group sessions to include patients with pre-diabetes,” Ms Lyndon said.
Ms Lyndon said ESSA had also called on the government to expand Medicare-funded telehealth provisions to cater to Australia’s regional and remote population, as there is a forty-fold difference in the number of MBS-funded allied health services being accessed in metropolitan areas as compared to rural areas. ESSA urge the government to offer rebates for all allied health telehealth consultations as a means of addressing inequalities in healthcare access for those living outside major cities.
ESSA has also highlighted the importance of access to a range of allied health professionals as part of a multidisciplinary, team-based care model. Ms Lyndon added, “This includes the removal of barriers and inequity of rules applied to accredited exercise physiologists and other allied health practitioners delivering services within the MBS, which increase administrative burden, create duplication and delay patient access to intervention.”