Fees for consultations and services outside of appointments

Private Fees are charged for all telehealth and in-room consultations as well as out of consultation services. Fees charged reflect the doctor's time spent and their specialist medical expertise. Medical consultation fees are usually eligible for Medicare Rebates with a valid referral ( from a GP or other specialist Dr) if the Medicare item requirements are met and the patient is an Australian resident with a valid Medicare number. Doctors have to comply with the Medicare rules to put through a request to Medicare on the patient's behalf, in order for the patient to claim a Medicare rebate for the doctor's service. Please advise the admin team if you prefer to make payment for your consult fee and receive a payment receipt which will state the Medicare item number relevant to your consultation, for you to process and claim a rebate directly with Services Australia Medicare yourself.

Doctors' consultations are medical services and patient costs are eligible for partial reimbursement through the Services Australia Medicare program which is funded through the Australian federal government Department of Health. Doctors' medical services are not in any way covered by or reimbursed through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which is funded through a separate department of the Australian Federal Government. Public hospital inpatient and outpatient services are free for patients and are funded through the Queensland (or other state) Government Department of Health.

New patients will be provided an estimate of fees for consultations when booking appointments, which will be emailed as an attachment to the new patient booking information email.

Please Note: Coastal Developmental Paediatrics is a private clinic and does not offer bulk-billing services. The fees payable for Paediatrician appointments  compensate the doctor for their time and clinical opinion regarding likely diagnosis and recommended management plan, given their extensive specialist training. This fee is not dependant on whether the parent agrees with the outcome or doctor's opinion.

Doctor consultation fees will not be reimbursed to parents who disagree with the doctor's assessment and medical advice.

Telehealth appointments are charged also at the same rate, per the time your doctor spends providing care and there are medicare rebates available for the different medicare items of telehealth (different rebate items for videoconference appointments vs telephone consults) and length of consultation time, provided that the medicare item requirements are fulfilled.

Please note our appointment cancellation policies and fees charged for late cancellations also apply to telehealth appointments. If your doctor is unable to connect with you for your scheduled telehealth appointment, all reasonable efforts will be made to connect with you that same day via the planned telehealth modality or an alternative (eg. phone consult if Zoom connection is not working).

A schedule of estimated fees covering all services can be provided to all clients when booking appointments. These fees will vary between doctors, and are subject to fee increases annually - if you require a schedule or specific service fee quote, please speak to a member of the administration team.

Appointments are devoted to the clinical care needs of your child and family. In general, your Paediatrician will not have time to complete additional forms or non-clinical administration tasks during your allocated appointment time.

Doctors are often asked to complete forms, write letters, make telephone calls and a variety of other activities that occur outside of face-to-face consultations.

Doctors are bound by medico-legal and ethical constraints, but if they can do the requested paperwork, it is likely that a fee will apply.

The doctors are generally happy to assist with completion of additional forms pertaining to your child’s care. If you need Education Qld AARA, Centrelink or other forms completed, the administration team will arrange for your doctor to do this in a separate appointment time, or non-clinical time, at an additional charge.

Charges for administration tasks including form completion will vary according to the time taken to complete. Estimated costs are as follows: -

Centrelink or Education Qld AARA Forms - $ 100 - 200 per form, dependent on complexity of the form and time required to complete.

This applies whether forms are provided to the doctor during a consultation OR outside of usual consultations and the fees are charged depending on time taken to complete ( with no Medicare rebate available). If an additional telephone review consult is required, for the doctor to obtain additional required information, a Medicare phone consult rebate applies.

Clarification of Purpose medication forms (for NDIS or Department of Child Safety)       $ 50

NDIS Application forms - Doctors usually do not complete these forms as they are online and require parent completion. Doctor 'diagnosis and recommendation' letters can be submitted to the NDIS by parents as supporting medical evidence, to support their own online application. Please discuss your requirements with your doctor during your consultation, as NDIS paperwork requirements can vary depending on individuals' circumstances. 

Contact between appointments and additional fees:

Between appointments and in most cases where you need a new script, referral or you have additional paperwork to be completed, under our shared care agreement your GP should be able to do this. If you have additional questions or needs, an appointment is required.

Medication Prescriptions:

Script fee (script only and no consult associated, no Medicare rebate)             Cost    $ 50

If you require a script between scheduled appointments, you are often best to obtain these from your GP. If the GP is unable to provide this, the Paediatrician may be able to provide a short script to last until you are able to arrange a review. The cost will be $50.  You are strongly encouraged to plan and book an appointment with your GP or your Paediatrician well before your child’s medication runs out to avoid disappointment.

Please note: Legally as part of providing good quality practice, a child should not be issued a script without 6-12 monthly physical review of their growth and health by a doctor, so a GP or Paediatrician visit and examination is generally required to provide repeat scripts at these 6 and 12 monthly intervals.

Contacting for advice or clinical support outside of Clinic appointments:

Only very limited time is available for doctors to provide brief email replies regarding patient concerns advised outside of appointment times, for example when clients contact via admin@cdpaediatrics.com.au. Medico-legally doctors also have to be mindful of providing advice via email, as this is not regarded a secure form of communicating sensitive and clinical information to patients.

If medical or clinical advice is required, you will usually need to arrange an in-clinic or telehealth appointment. The administration team will endeavour to contact your doctor to advise them of your concerns if you contact the office between appointments, via email or phone, as soon as possible. They will seek your doctor's advice regarding making a follow-up appointment (or telehealth appointment), or alternative advice as appropriate, such as for you to seek emergency care for your child elsewhere.

As Coastal Developmental Paediatrics is a small private clinic of independent doctors, and many of the Paediatricians are only available for contact on a part-time basis, there is no capacity for provision of urgent care and there may also be a delay in responding to your email or phonecall. Please see the ‘Emergency or crisis situation’ Policy on our website for suggestions for you to access alternative urgent and acute care support options if needed.