Living with COVID-19

The program is focused on reducing hospitalisations and allowing people to actively engage in their own health management plan supported by a health care professional via an in-home visit arrangement.

We will provide brokerage to general practices and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) who are actively managing COVID-19 positive cases to enable home visits to those who are managing COVID-19 at home. This includes home visits to Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs) and people who are isolating at home as a close contact.

General practices and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations that have a current structure, protocol, and clinical governance to facilitate home visits.

Practices can engage their practice nurses, nurse practitioners or GPs to provide home visits in this model.

Clinical staff providing direct care to patients must hold the appropriate registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). Nursing staff minimum qualification is Registered Nurse Division 1. Clinical staff will have no restrictions or conditions on their AHPRA registration. If two health professionals attend the home visit, the practice can only make one claim.

General practices and ACCHOs will be paid a $250 fee for each visit, however the practice is unable to bill an MBS item in addition to this. This fee includes an amount for reporting requirements to be met, and is a flat fee for all visits.

Yes, however the same fee of $250 per visit will apply.

General practices and ACCHOs will need to provide clear reporting of service contacts as per our monthly activity reporting template. This report includes, but is not limited to:

• date visit occurred
• time taken
• primary purpose of visit
• other healthcare needs unrelated to COVID status
• referral to other services including escalation to hospital.

Please note: We reserve the right to use the data provided through reports to conduct an audit, to ensure the program is being delivered as intended. This may require the practice to provide evidence that a home visit occurred, e.g. through presentation of clinical notes during an onsite audit.

Practices will be required to submit a monthly invoice to covid19phn@coordinare.org.au on the last working day of the month.

Practices will receive a link to securely upload the report (template provided by us). Once both of these have been received, payment will be made. The template for reporting and invoicing can be found here.

• COVID-19 positive patients who are isolating at home
• people living in the community who are isolating at home as a close contact
• COVID-19 positive patients who live in a Residential Aged Care Facility.

The home visit may relate to a patient's COVID-19 diagnosis, or may relate to other health conditions (e.g. injury, wound care, chronic disease management).

The RACGP website provides guidance you can access here.

HealthPathways provides direction on escalation and de-escalation of care based on consumers condition/s. 

To access these pathways please go to your local HealthPathways site for ACT and Southern NSW (username: together | password: forhealth) or Illawarra Shoalhaven (username: connected | password: 2pathways).

Staff must hold appropriate Professional Indemnity Insurance, and will maintain all other relevant insurances e.g. public liability, worker’s compensation, motor vehicle etc., or be covered by their employer’s insurance.

For both RACFs and private homes, each additional patient seen after the initial patient will be remunerated at $150. For example:

• General practitioner or practice nurse visiting a RACF: First resident $250, all additional residents will be remunerated at $150.00 each.
• General practitioner or practice nurse visiting a private home: First patient $250, all additional people / children will be remunerated at $150 each.

No, the fee for service includes travel.

The unique identifier is a number the practice must assign to individual patients. Using this identifier in place of name and demographic details means the practice does not need to send sensitive patient data in order to claim a home visit.

The unique identifier will allow us to understand how many unique patients have benefited from the program. Practices can opt to generate their own, or you could use the Statistical Linkage Key Generator here.