This report summarises early analysis of antenatal care claims processed by Medicare during January to December 2020, in Australia. This report is only intended to be indicative of trends in use of antenatal care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not all antenatal services are claimed on the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS).
The results show there was a small decrease in the number of antenatal services processed during 2020 compared with 2019. The number of face-to-face services were around 8% fewer during 2020 compared with 2019. However, temporary COVID-19 telehealth services mostly made up this gap leaving a less than 1% reduction in services processed over this period.
- Cat. no: PER 114
Findings from this report:
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Nationally, over 1.6 million MBS services for antenatal care were processed during 2020
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More than 90% of antenatal services claimed on the MBS were face-to-face consults
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Almost 1 in 10 antenatal services processed for March to December 2020 were delivered via telehealth
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Face-to-face antenatal services declined 15% in quarter 2 of 2020 compared with quarter 2 2019