The Federal Government should restore telephone items for GPs writing and reviewing chronic disease care plans, the MBS Continuous Review has recommended in its final report on Medicare-funded telehealth.

It has also abandoned its draft recommendation to scrap video telehealth items for initial appointments with non-GP specialists and called for more telephone items for non-GP specialist follow-up consultations.

The 45-page report, published eight months after the draft, is critical of the government’s attempt to prioritise video-based telehealth, saying it has “potentially resulted in inequitable access to telehealth for some populations”.

The Federal Government brought in telephone items for care planning in early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began.