It seems like forever since the government announced in 2019 that private health insurance payments were no longer available for patients of naturopaths and Western herbalists.
As you are aware, the NHAA has been working hard to reverse this announcement since then.
Yesterday saw the Federal Health Minister announce that he has accepted the Natural Therapy Review’s recommendation to allow private health insurers to pay benefits for naturopathy and Western herbal medicine.
The NTREAP (Natural Therapies Review Expert Advisory Panel) findings on natural therapies and private health insurance are published on its website.
NTREAP has recommended both Naturopathy and Western herbal medicine be eligible for private health insurance benefits again and we are thrilled with this announcement.
The Government accepted the recommendations before caretaker conventions. The regulations can’t be updated until after the election and so we aren’t eligible for private health insurance benefits yet.
The NHAA continues to meet with politicians of all persuasions, government staff, and private health insurers, and we are committed to delivering only fact-checked information as soon as it becomes available. Sometimes, that takes a little time.
The NHAA is working on a PHI registration guide to help you register for PHI benefits for your patients as soon as possible. We envisage this will reflect a mixture of previous naturopathy and Western herbal medicine requirements and current PHI requirements for other allied health professionals. Essentially this means you will need to be a full practising member of the NHAA for your patients to access the rebates.
To help keep you in the loop and answer your questions, we are scheduling a free member webinar to help you prepare for the next stages.