Appointments
What to bring to your appointment
Do I require a referral letter?
If you would like to claim a rebate from Medicare for the consultation, you will require a valid medical referral letter provided prior to the consultation. If you do not have a referral letter your child may still see the specialist but you will not be eligible for any Medicare rebate.
It is your responsibility to ensure you have a valid medical referral. Please note that referrals written by a GP are usually only valid for a 12 month period and referrals written by a specialist are usually only valid for a 3 month period. Please check with our reception staff if you require a new referral when scheduling your next appointment.
Do you provide medical advice via email or telephone?
Our specialist doctors are not able to provide medical advice or consultation via email or telephone. Your child will need to attend a medical appointment to discuss medical management and address any clinical queries that you may have.
At the specialist’s discretion, some results of investigations ordered by our specialists may be discussed with you via telephone. However, if the specialist needs to discuss this in more detail with you or any subsequent investigations or referrals are required, a follow-up appointment is required.
Am I required to pay for the consultation on the day?
This is a private paediatric specialist service. Our service does not bulk bill and we require that you settle your consultation fees at the conclusion of the appointment. Your out of pocket expense will depend on the charge for the consultation and Medicare rebate you receive. Please contact our reception to discuss our consulting fees.
Our practice accepts EFTPOS, and MasterCard and Visa credit card payments.
If you are registered with Medicare and have a valid referral, our service will send this information to Medicare to assist with online claiming. In most circumstances Medicare will pay your Medicare rebate back directly into your nominated bank account or by preferred payment method.
I have private insurance, will that cover the consultation fee?
Appointments with paediatric medical specialists are out-of-hospital consultations. Health funds do not provide cover for these medical consultations.
Many private health funds, depending on your level of cover will provide some rebates for Allied health services including speech pathology, dietician, and psychology
What if we cannot attend the appointment?
Please notify us as soon as you are aware that you are unable to attend the appointment so that we can help you reschedule. We may be able to provide the appointment to another child who is waiting to be seen.
Appointments cancelled within 24 hours will be subject to a cancellation fee.
Collection of your personal information
We collect information directly from you regarding your child so as to undertake a paediatric consultation. We require you to provide us with your and your child’s personal details and medical history so that we may assess, diagnose and recommend management for your child’s health care needs. We will collect this information from questionnaires and from your responses in the clinical consultation.
If you believe the information we hold about you is incorrect or an error has been made, please advise us and we will correct or add a notation to your medical record.
Security of information collected
Your information may be held in a variety of ways. Most commonly, information will be held as part of the electronic medical record forming part of a computerised database. We follow strict rules regarding the secure storage of personal information in all formats in order to protect information from unauthorised access, loss or other misuse.
Use for disclosure of information
Your personal health information may be used within Paediatric Care to share information with our health professionals or disclosed to the following :
• Disclosure to others involved in your child’s health care, including your referring doctor as well as any other treating doctors and specialists outside this medical practice. This may occur through referral to other doctors, referral for investigations including pathology, imaging or any other diagnostic tests, and in correspondence generated from your child’s appointment.
• Disclosure to other doctors in the practice, Allied health professionals, locums attached to the practice for the purpose of patient care
• With your consent we may also need to communicate with teachers, allied health providers and other professionals involved with your child.
• Billing purposes, including compliance with Medicare and Health Insurance Commission requirements and debt recovery
• In an emergency situation we would disclose appropriate information to an authorised third-party to help prevent a more imminent threat to someone’s life, health or welfare.
The law also allows or requires for your personal health information to be disclosed to other third parties, for example:
• Statutory reporting purposes such as to report notifiable diseases
• To other health providers or law enforcement agencies if you provide us with information relating to serious crime, including assault, domestic violence, child abuse
• To comply with a subpoena or search warrant if your personal information is required as evidence in Court
Please let us know if you do would prefer that your records are not accessed for the above purposes.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
NDIS is the new way of providing support for Australians with disability, their families and carers.
As an insurance scheme, the NDIS takes a lifetime approach, investing in people with disability early to improve their outcomes later in life.
The NDIS gives all Australians peace of mind that if their child or loved one is born with or acquires a permanent and significant disability they will get the support they need.
The NDIS supports people with disability to build skills and capability so they can participate in the community and employment.
For more information: ndis.nsw.gov.au or call 1800 800 110