Dokotela’s aim is to make telehealth hassle-free. We take care of all the administration so that you can focus on providing high-quality care to your patients.

This includes:

• Setting up a secure telehealth virtual room
• Onboarding/marketing to GPs Bookings and calendar management
• Reception service (rebooking, sending treatment plans/correspondence to GPs etc)
• Billing

We hold your hand through the whole process so you can just focus on providing high-quality clinical care.

We currently provide over 1,000 consultations per month. We are a group of 35 Specialists- most are part-time a few work full-time.

Collaborative Care Model

Dokotela is different from most telehealth platforms because of the model that we always work collaboratively with GP’s in managing their patients.

Practically, we do this by always trying to arrange appointments at the GP medical practice and requesting every patient to have time discussing the treatment plan with the Specialist, GP, and carers. We also request the GP to write the prescriptions to engage the GP more closely in the treatment of their patient.

We provide educational input, diagnostic clarification, suggestions regarding medication and possible side-effects and recommend appropriate e-health psychological services. We also ask about local psychosocial services with which the patient can engage.

1. We work as a team, we often refer patients for 2nd opinions within our team of Specialists
2. We manage complaints on your behalf by having an assigned complaints officer who will contact the patient and ask how best to resolve the dissatisfaction, often by offering a 2nd opinion. Most complaints relate to miscommunications that can usually be easily resolved
3. We have a Dokotela Whatsapp group for our Specialists to communicate their questions and concerns. We are all very supportive and offer advice and assistance to this group

Payment for services will be received by Dokotela so we can confirm all your appointments have been paid and there are no outstanding debtors. Each Monday you will receive a statement of payment and funds will be deposited into your account for the week prior.

Please ensure you provide MBS items immediately following each appointment to avoid payments being delayed. When you start with Dokotela you will be required to complete a Medicare form for payment details, this should be sent to us at least 10 business days before you start consulting to avoid your first payment being delayed. The principal cost in telehealth is patient non-attendance.

Dokotela operations staff work very hard to keep this to a minimum, we are constantly refining our processes. If 50% of your patients don’t attend then effectively the Specialist is paying a 50% fee! We make sure that doesn’t’ happen to our Specialsits. The quality of our operations team saves you a large amount of time and money.

Clients generally pay out-of-pocket fees unless funded by a third party (primary health network, DVA, workcover etc.) 

Some general psychiatry appointments are bulk billed at the Psychiatrists discretion for some clients in a rural or regional area as defined by the Modified Monash Model – MM2-7; in an aged care facility or an Aboriginal Medical Service. 

Clients will be required to pay the appointment fee and we will then process the Medicare rebate on their behalf.

If a patient requests a service separate from their treatment (reports, letters, forms etc.) it is at your discretion what you would like to charge the patient (we can let you know what other Specialists charge if helpful).

If a patient wants to have a consult from home for a particular reason we will ensure the patient is appropriate for a home appointment.

If you see a patient who is inappropriate for management via video conference you can speak to the GP and tell him/her that this is the case – this is your clinical decision.

You can discuss concerns with other Specialists on the WhatsApp group at any time (or call our Medical Director).

• You can specify what types of work you will/won’t do
• All practitioners are required to consult with Dokotela a minimum of 4 hours per week. This is to cover the cost of the subscriptions required to be on the platform.
• You can work within your scope of practice, although by its nature telehealth tends to stretch the clinical problems that you will encounter.
• For example, if you are not comfortable prescribing Psychostimulants we will make a note of this and not send you these patients