Overview
The 75+ Health Assessment provides the opportunity to improve health outcomes for our older patients and assist in building financial gains for your practice. Health assessment MBS items are used and practice nurses can contribute to the assessment. 75+ Health Assessments can be performed at home or in the consulting room and can be claimed annually.
Eligibility criteria for the 75+ Health Assessment
Patients must be:
- Aged 75 years or older
- Seen in consulting rooms, a residential aged care facility or at home
- Not in hospital
Identifying patients and practice processes
Health assessments work best if done in a planned way. Some questions you might want to consider before conducting a series of 75+ Health Assessments are:
- Do you have a team member who can identify eligible patients and recall them either using your clinical software or PEN Clinical Audit Tool?
- Have you checked Provider Digital Access (PRODA) to see if the patients have already had a 75+ Health Assessment billed in the last 12 months before recalling?
- Do all staff know the booking rules for health assessments? How long with the nurse? How long with the GP?
- Are all GPs aware of the correct item number to be billed and the billing rules?
- Do you have a template to record the assessment?
- Do all GPs and nurses know where to record advance care plans or directives in the software?
- Are patients then put back on recall in 12 months for another assessment?
Consulting rooms or home visit?
The 75+ Health Assessment can be undertaken either in the clinic or in the patient’s home.
There are advantages to conducting this assessment in the home: there is value in seeing a patient in their own environment and being able to detect problems that may not be obvious in the consulting room. For example: are there slip mats in the bathroom or steps without a handrail at the back door?
Practice nurses can conduct the majority of the 75+ Health Assessment either in the clinic or in the home. A nurse may have more flexibility than a GP to visit a patient at home. However, a disadvantage of having a nurse conduct an Assessment in the home is that the billing is more complicated; the patient must still see the GP to follow up on findings and recommendations and for the item to be billed.
The patient can see the GP on a separate day, but processes need to be in place to alert the GP to complete and bill the assessment, and to follow up on patients who do not attend the follow up appointment.
It is also important to note that the 75+ Health Assessment item cannot be in conjunction with another consultation on the same day, except where it is clinically required (for example the patient has an acute problem that needs to be managed separately from the assessment).
Medicare health assessment items (include nurses time) – can be claimed annually
| 701 | assessment lasting 30 minutes | $59.35 |
| 703 | assessment lasting 30-45 minutes | $137.90 |
| 705 | assessment lasting 45-60 minutes | $190.30 |
| 707 | assessment lasting 60 minutes | $268.80 |
Templates
Most clinical software is pre-loaded with a 75+ Health Assessment template. A template is available in PDF, Word, MedicalDirector and Best Practice formats here. A similar template is also available from the Department of Health.
How does this help my business?
Conducting the 75+ Health Assessment is a good way to engage with your older cohort of patients. During the assessment, it is likely that you will pick up on new health issues to be addressed, or existing conditions that are not being managed as well as they could be. This may lead to the patient being recalled to the practice for a GP Management Plan or a Mental Health Treatment Plan, which can improve the care of these patients and improve practice income.
Completing this assessment also helps to build your relationship and trust with your older patients. This may help their loyalty to you or your practice and make them more likely to come back for their future care.
Where can I find more information?
You can find more information on the content of a 75+ Health Assessment, including advice as to where to refer on for further investigations on HealthPathways Melbourne.
For access to HealthPathways please contact info@healthpathways.org.au
Disclaimer: This article was provided by Dr Jeannie Knapp. While every effort has been made to ensure the information is accurate, North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network does not warrant or represent the accuracy, currency and completeness of any information or material included within.
