Better Start for Children with Disability Initiative

The Australian Government has committed $122 million over four years towards the Better Start for Children with Disability initiative, which commenced on 1 July 2011. This initiative created new item numbers in the Medical Benefit Schedule (MBS), and provides early intervention and individual assistance packages for children with disability, their families and carers. Item number 139 has been introduced to allow for an assessment, diagnosis and development of a treatment and management plan for children, aged under 13, with an eligible disability, which includes Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, Fragile X syndrome, or a moderate or greater vision or hearing impairment, including deafblindness.

The Better Start for Children with Disability initiative includes the following components:

• Funding for early intervention services and treatment for eligible children;
• Additional assistance for eligible children who live in outer-regional, rural or remote locations to help with the costs of accessing services;
• A Medicare item for the development of a treatment and management plan for eligible children up to the age of 13;
• Medicare items for up to 4 allied health diagnostic services, the result of which contribute to the development of the treatment and management plan; and
• Medicare items for up to 20 relevant allied health services in total for each eligible child up to the age of 15, provided that the treatment plan is in place before the age of 13.

Description of assessment items

Professional attendance provided to a child under 13 years where:

• The child is referred by an eligible practitioner for the purpose of collaborating with the practitioner for the diagnosis of the child; and/or
• The child is referred by an eligible practitioner for the purpose of contributing to the child's disability treatment plan, developed by the practitioner;
• The eligible practitioner is a specialist, consultant physician or general practitioner;
• The allied health provider attending the child is registered with Medicare Australia as meeting the eligibility requirements for the provision of these services;
• The child is not an admitted patient of a hospital;
• The service is provided to the child individually and in person, and the service last least 50 minutes in duration.

Up to 4 services may be provided to the same child on the same day. These items are limited to a maximum of 4 services in total per child consisting of any combination of 82000, 82005, 82010, 82030 provided by any combination of allied health professionals. A written report must be provided to the referring medical practitioner after providing the assessment services.

Description of treatment items

Professional attendance provided for treatment of an eligible disability for a child aged under 15 years where:

• The child has been diagnosed with an eligible disability;
• The child has received a disability treatment plan (while under 13 years) as prepared for the child by an eligible practitioner (under item 137 or 139);
• The child has been referred by an eligible practitioner for services that are consistent with the disability treatment plan;
• The eligible medical practitioner is a specialist, consultant physician or general practitioner;
• The allied health provider attending the child is registered with Medicare Australia as meeting eligibility requirements for the provision of these activities;
• The child is not an admitted patient to hospital; and
• The service is provided to the child individually and in person, and the service lasts at least 30 minutes in duration

Up to 4 services may be provided to the same child on the same day. These items are limited to a maximum of 20 services in total per life time, consisting of any combination of items 82015, 82020, 82025, 82035, provided by any combination of allied health professionals. Within the 20 services provided, a course of treatment will consist of the number of services stated on the child's referral (up to a maximum of 10). An allied health professional wanting to provide any of items 82000 to 82035 must be in receipt of a current referral provided by the relevant medical practitioner. Also, a written report must be provided to the referring medical practitioner after completion of the course of treatment.

Further Information

Further information on the Better Start for Children with Disability items can be found at the following websites:

MBS Online - Click Here 
Department of Health and Ageing - Click Here 
Fact sheet for Health Professionals - Click Here 
Frequently Asked Questions - Click Here