Telehealth for dietitians: separate items, same rate

Telehealth stopped being an emergency measure some time ago and became part of how Australian dietetics runs. The billing has not simplified to match. The most common error is straightforward: billing the face-to-face item for a video consult and noting the mode in the record.

That is a rejected claim. Not because the service was wrong, but because the mode is the item, not an attribute of it.

Medicare: three modes, three item numbers

Under a Chronic Disease Management plan:

• 10954 — face to face
• 93000 — video
• 93013 — phone

Under an Eating Disorder Plan:

• 82350 — face to face
• 93074 — video
• 93108 — phone

The rate is identical across all six: $74.55 schedule fee, $63.40 benefit, effective 1 July 2026. Telehealth is not discounted, and there is no financial reason to prefer one mode over another.

Two things worth knowing:

Phone is a distinct item, not a fallback video item. If the video call fails and you complete the consult by phone, that is the phone item, not the video one.

The CDM telehealth items are generic allied-health items. 93000 and 93013 are not dietitian-specific — they are shared across allied health — and they still draw on the same five services per calendar year that every other allied health provider is drawing on.

NDIS: telehealth is its own line item, at the same limit

NDIS handles it differently. Direct service and telehealth are separate line items under registration group 0128 – Dietitian:

• 01_760_0128_3_3 — direct service
• 01_760_0128_3_3_TH — telehealth

Both at $178.99 per hour nationally for 2026-27. Again, not discounted.

Standard NDIS telehealth conditions apply, and they are in the Pricing Arrangements rather than being something you can reason your way to.

What to document

Mode of delivery belongs in the note regardless of who is paying, and it is the first thing an audit looks for. The practical minimum:

• The mode, named — video or telephone, not “telehealth”
• Why, if the mode was clinically relevant — a patient in a remote area, an infection-control reason, a mobility issue
• Who was present, which changes more often on video than in a room: an interpreter, a carer, a parent off camera
• What you could and could not assess. This is the clinically important one. You cannot take a weight or a mid-arm circumference over video. If the assessment relied on a patient-reported weight, the note should say so, because the next clinician needs to know which numbers were measured and which were reported.

That last point is worth more than the billing. A note that reads identically for a video consult and a face-to-face one is a note that has quietly lost information.

Where the mistakes cluster

Booking systems that do not carry the mode. If the appointment type says “Dietitian review” and the mode lives in someone’s memory until invoicing, the wrong item gets billed eventually.

Assuming telehealth is the cheaper option for the patient. It is not — same fee, same rebate, same gap.

Forgetting the CDM five are shared. Telehealth does not create extra sessions. The patient who has used four allied health services this year has one left, in any mode.

Look it up rather than remembering

Our free Medicare rebate finder lets you pick the pathway and the mode and shows the item number, schedule fee, benefit and patient gap. The NDIS line items tool does the same for participants, including remote and very remote limits. Neither needs an account.

Inside AI Dietitians the same reference sits with the patient record, so the mode is chosen where the note is written rather than reconstructed at invoicing.

References

• MBS Online — telehealth item numbers and the conditions attached to them.
• Department of Health, MBS telehealth services
• NDIS, Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits — telehealth line item and conditions.
• Dietitians Australia, Telehealth practice guidance

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MBS schedule fees and benefits shown are those effective 1 July 2026 and are indexed annually. NDIS price limits are national limits for 2026-27; remote and very remote loadings apply. Item numbers, telehealth conditions and claiming rules change — confirm on MBS Online and in the current NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits before billing. General information for clinicians, not billing, legal or financial advice.