Nearly three quarters of GPs say they were oblivious to the Federal Health Department’s interpretation of the ‘existing relationship’ rules for claiming MBS telehealth items.

Last month the department sent out compliance letters demanding 400 GPs review their claims over the previous nine months and pay back rebates inappropriately billed.

The MBS explanatory notes defined ‘existing patients’ as those who have received face-to-face care from the GP, or another GP at the same practice, in the past 12 months.

A number of doctors targeted in the latest crackdown say they understood this to mean that as long as the initial telehealth consult took place within 12 months of the face-to-face consult, it was legitimate to claim subsequent telehealth items if they fell outside the 12-months because the relationship had been re-established.