Planning care and using payment schedules

Planning end-of-life and palliative care to support patients with a life limiting illness requires MBS remuneration to support care.

Key points

  • Palliative care patients include not just those who are very close to the end-of-life, but others with advanced disease
  • A range of item numbers associated with the Chronic Disease Management program are appropriate in the care of palliative care patients
  • Multidisciplinary care and case conferences are an important strategy in this population
  • To support care and reimbursement consider:
    • Setting up reminders for care planning, case conferencing and advance care planning
    • Schedule longer appointments for planned services
    • Include Advance Care Planning discussion in health assessments and care plans
    • Use general consultations to address unplanned care needs
    • A practice nurse can assist GPs with planning end-of-life and palliative care services
    • Telehealth items may also be an option for care provision

A number of Primary Health Networks (PHN) have developed resources to guide GPs in the use of MBS items to support palliative care and end of life care in residential aged care and in the community. It may be useful to contact your local PHN and/or HealthPathway.

The Primary Health Care pages include information on remuneration for palliative care services.

Last updated 24 August 2021