Today I’d like to explain the government’s system of funding for physiotherapy treatment of chronic musculoskeletal conditions.
The system of funding comes under the Chronic Disease Management Plan. It is Item 10960 for physios.
You can find all the information in great detail at health.gov.au under the search heading of “Chronic Disease Management – Individual Allied Health Services under Medicare”.
This plan is often called an “Enhanced Primary Care Plan” or EPC for short.
The purpose of this funding is:
“For patients who require a structured approach and to enable GP’s to plan and coordinate the care of patients with complex conditions.”
The Physio Joint works closely with GPs to provide services for people with complex chronic pain issues originating from muscle and joint conditions.
A Medicare rebate of $52.95 is available for each treatment for a maximum of FIVE treatments per person per calendar year.
You must see your GP to determine if you qualify for this government funded health initiative.
According to the government guidelines:
“A chronic medical condition is one that has been (or is likely to be) present for six months or longer, for example… musculoskeletal conditions”.
Most of the conditions we see at The Physio Joint qualify for this health funding. For example, people with headaches, neck pain or back pain usually present to us after having suffered for many years… well over the six month qualifying time!
They have chronic pain which comes under this Chronic Disease Management Plan umbrella.
Here at The Physio Joint, we are well suited to treat such conditions. This is our specialty to treat chronic spinal pain conditions. This is where the benefits of this government health funding is crucial to assist people in achieving their best health care results.
