Luke Grant speaks with Anne Wilson, CEO of Emerge Australia – the national patient organisation supporting joining calls for the Federal Government to reassess its plan to cut some telehealth services and charge the cost for longer consultations directly to patients.

Ms Wilson says “since the announcement of the plan, the organisation has had many distressed calls, especially from pensioners, who were worried about not being able to pay extra fees for longer telehealth consultations as they battled with their illness.”

Now this decision includes 70 different telehealth-related consultations, 33 initial and complex specialist items and 40 specialist in-patient items.

Ms Wilson believes the decision not to extend pandemic-related telehealth services that ended on 30 June places those with chronic and complex conditions like ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and Long COVID at increased risk due to the need for longer consultations.

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