Category 8 - MISCELLANEOUS SERVICES
MN.14.15
Referral requirements
A participating nurse practitioner will be able to refer private patients to a specialist and consultant physician as clinical services dictate.
This measure does not include referral by a nurse practitioner for allied health care. If a participating nurse practitioner refers a patient to an allied health practitioner, no benefits would be payable for that service provided by the allied health professional.
A referral given by a participating nurse practitioner is valid until 12 months after the first service given in accordance with the referral.
If the referral is lost, stolen or destroyed, the nurse practitioner would need to provide a replacement referral as soon as is practicable after the service is provided.
A referral to a specialist must be in writing in the form of a letter or a note to the specialist and must be signed and dated by the referring nurse practitioner. The referral must contain any information relevant to the patient and the specialist must have received the referral on or prior to providing a specialist consultation.
There are exemptions from this requirement in an emergency if the specialist considers the patient's condition requires immediate attention without a referral. In that situation, the specialist is taken to be the referring practitioner.
Legend
- Assist - Addition/Deletion of (Assist.)
- Amend - Amended Description
- Anaes - Anaesthetic Values Amended
- Emsn - EMSN Change
- Fee - Fee Amended
- Renum - Item Number Change (renumbered)
- New - New Item
- NewMin - New Item (previous Ministerial Determination)
- Qfe - QFE Change