Post-service digital assignment of benefit can be collected on some EFTPOS machines, but it won’t necessarily meet retention requirements.
Clinics may be able to meet the majority of incoming Medicare assignment of benefit changes using existing technology and processes, but GPs are being advised to keep vigilant on record-keeping.
There are a few different components to the 1 July changes – practices will be able to collect e-signatures without having to use a specific form, for instance, and some steps will be able to be completed before the actual consult.
The big one, though, is the new requirement for GPs to store evidence of patient consent to be bulk billed for two years post-service.
This will apply to every single episode of care which is bulk billed.
The potential solutions floated amongst the practice management community have included sending patients texts or emails immediately following a consult in order to get their digital consent, or to have them sign a physical form while at the practice.
Software vendor Tyro Health has now confirmed that its Medicare Easyclaim EFTPOS machines will be compliant with the new system, meaning that they will be a valid way to collect patient e-signatures when they consent to be bulk billed.
Practices will be able to transmit their bulk bill claim from their practice management software to a Tyro Health EFTPOS machine using the Easyclaim software, and the EFTPOS machine will show the question “do you assign your right to benefit”, with the option for the patient to click “yes” or “no”.
If the patient clicks “yes”, the claim proceeds. If they click “no”, the claim is cancelled.
What the machine will not do, though, is automatically electronically save this interaction; it must be printed out and physically stored by the practice.
“Practices will still be required to retain completed [assignment of benefit] agreements for at least two years and provide a copy to the patient if requested,” a spokesperson for Tyro told The Medical Republic.
“Our recommendation is that practices keep the relevant printed Tyro receipts as their record.”
The spokesperson said Tyro Health was currently developing a new EFTPOS terminal which would have the ability to store digital receipts and have the Easyclaim functionality without the requirement to be integrated into a practice management system.
There is no release date currently attached to the device.
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Healthcare accountant David Dahm told TMR that practices which did opt to use the Tyro Easyclaim method to collect patient assignment of benefit would have to double down on record keeping.
“For practices using Tyro Easyclaim, because the signed Assignment of Benefit artefact returned by the terminal is paper and not a digital file in the practice management system, a receptionist will need to scan every printed [assignment of benefit] into the relevant patient record, every working day, to discharge the section 65C two-year retention obligation,” he said.
“That is more admin time and more money, every day, for the next two years.
“The alternative is to bill the patient 100% privately.”
Because the patient is technically the recipient of the Medicare benefit when they are privately billed, there is no requirement to keep records indicating their consent.
Mr Dahm said it was not his intention to criticise any particular vendor, and that practices would likely face roadblocks come 1 July no matter what they did.
“Either way, the front desk will get slower, patient explanations at the counter will take longer, and cash flow will be affected in any practice that submits a bulk bill claim without a provable consent on file,” Mr Dahm said.
“That is the choice. It is not really a choice between technology systems.
“It is a choice about how the practice wants to spend reception time and which risk it is prepared to carry.”
