Enhancing Patient Care: A Guide to MyMedicare Patient Registration Campaigns
- MyMedicare
- Nicole Teklenburg
- August 23, 2023
Introduction to MyMedicare and Its Importance
MyMedicare is on the doorstep. Patient registration begins in October 2023. Although the government isn’t rushing to inform patients, your patients must be registered with your medical practice if they will be affected by what MyMedicare brings.
Hopefully, you have registered your practice with the PRODA organisation register in preparation for MyMedicare. The next step is to start categorising your patients into different cohorts and finally build an education campaign to provide content to patients who you may want to register.
Finding the right patients
Preparing for MyMedicare begins with knowing who’s who in your patient base. Regularly reviewing your Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) active patients list is more than just a task; it’s essential. The RACGP 5th edition standards for accreditation, particularly standard C7.1, emphasise the importance of patient health record content. An active patient, as defined by the RACGP standards, is one who’s had 3 or more visits to your practice in the last 24 months. Generating a list of these patients gives you a true snapshot of your active patient base. This review process offers a keen insight into their healthcare needs and care delivery trends. Other patient cohorts you may want to contact, and can tailor education to, are your CDM patients, telehealth/telephone patients, and RACF patients. This aligns with changes planned for MBS items based on MyMedicare.
Developing a Patient Education Campaign
Education is key, but how do you create a campaign that resonates with patients?
Follow these steps:
- Know Your Audience: Tailor the message to the patient’s needs.
- Use Relatable Language: Clear, concise communication. You want your tonality to come off as professional and expert. As your patients trust you, their local General Practice, with the information you provide.
- Choose the Right Medium: You may send text messages to younger and middle-aged patients. Whereas a letter may be more relevant for an older patient.
- Research from HotDoc has shown that many patients wish to receive email communication. Think about what mediums are available to your practice and how you can provide educational content.
At the time of writing this article, there are no clear instructions for how patients will register with MyMedicare.
Utilising Technology for Efficiency
Technology is an amazing ally, especially when it comes to educating patients. But what tools are right for your practice? Here’s what you can look into:
Make sure you whatever system you use integrates with your Practice Management Systems. Your practice management system, such as Best Practice or MedicalDirector are your source of truth for all patient data. Tip here is whenever you export lists of patients, make sure to include internal_id, which is the unique identifier for that patient in the practice management system. That way you can easily import lists of patients into online booking providers that do bulk-sms such as HotDoc or Automed.
You could also look at emailing solutions that have a great free plan such as Mailchimp. Try to limit what patient data you import into systems overseas as patient health data should always remain in Australia.
Next, make sure you choose the right data platform. Products such as Cubiko, can provide detailed patient cohort analysis. We’ve developed metrics that are purpose-built for MyMedicare patient cohorts such as yours.
Training Staff for Patient Support
A well-trained team is like a finely-tuned engine – powerful and reliable! Equip your staff with the skills they need to support patient registration:
- Regular training sessions: MyMedicare will regularly release new information and it’s hard to stay on top of everything. Keep an eye out for changes on trusted channels. Cubiko regularly posts new articles on MyMedicare, so does other trusted sources such as the RACGP.
- Create a supportive environment: Foster a positive experience for everyone. Make sure if a staff member doesn’t understand, they aren’t afraid to ask.
All the education you provide to patients, can also be provided to staff. That way if a patient has questions the staff member will have a great idea on how to assist that patient. Preparation is key!
Measuring Success and Continuous Improvement
The journey doesn’t end with implementing a campaign; it’s just the beginning! Regular check-ins and evaluations are crucial:
- Gather patient feedback: Know what works and what doesn’t.
- Analyse registration statistics: Keep track of progress. There isn’t detailed information yet about how you will know which patients are registered with your practice. But as soon as that information becomes available you will want to report on it regularly.
- Refine and Adapt: Don’t be afraid to tweak things.
Continuous improvement is the name of the game. You could even wrap your education campaign about MyMedicare together into a Quality Improvement activity!
Conclusion
MyMedicare patient registration doesn’t have to be a daunting task. With the right strategies and a dash of enthusiasm, it can be an empowering process for both patients and staff. Embrace technology, focus on education, and never stop improving. That’s the way to create an amazing and efficient healthcare experience.
In this article we’ve gone through what patients to analyse for your proactive education campaigns around MyMedicare. How to develop a patient education campaign, with some top tips on making sure it is valuable to patients. We’ve analysed some technology options for your practice to ensure you can make meaningful contact with patients. How to use the patient education campaigns to also ensure your staff have up to date information about MyMedicare. And finally, we looked at doing a quality improvement activity around your patient education campaign for continuous improvement!
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