On March 30, in response to COVID-19 and its likely impact on the mental health of Australians, the Federal Government released an “All of Australia” set of Telehealth items, allowing for non face to face sessions. These may only be bulkbilled. ServicesAustralia.gov.au manages the Health Practitioner online services (HPOS) website to allow for the practitioner to manage all bulkbilling, using a Provider Digital Access (PRODA) account. All is explained! If you don't have a PRODA account, you will see in the video where you can create one. You will need the usual 100 point security measures as you would a bank account, plus your AHPRA number. Expect some delays before it's all approved.
UPDATE: April 4, 2020
In the video, I challenged some of the talk about town of encryption and special health software, when I asserted free is as good for many solo practitioners. This was guidance only - you must do your own due diligence, heeding the legal advice offered by your professional association or national health regulator like AHPRA. Things are changing very rapidly, with quite a few security holes being discussed with respect to Zoom. My original assertions which started around 16:58 about the use of free versions of Zoom have now needed to be edited. Even Zoom for Healthcare (approved in the USA for HIPAA compliance) has been challenged for its security issues.
Additionally, the weekend of April 4-5 (when Daylight Savings Time ends in parts of Australia) Skype (a Microsoft product) chased after Zoom's popularity and now feeble handling of security with an update which allow a link only to be sent to a client which does not require them to install Skype - something which made Zoom so attractive initially. Mind you, Zoom is still great for conference calls where sensitive information is not discussed as long as certain measures are taken.
For a discussion current at April 4 about security and Zoom see: tidbits.com/2020/04/03/every-...
Ask me questions via comments, or privately via email: Les (at) lesposen.com
More videos to come will use my many years in a home office setup and using telepsychology to show how to best setup for telehealth and overcome the challenges many psychologists will face in accommodating to new ways of practising.